Light from another place
by demonicalfox777
Summary: Noble Six stayed behind to activate the slip space bomb instead of George, but was transported to the Destiny universe through a slip space anomaly. Now armed with a new team and new weapons he must aid in the fight against the dark for the light. OC cap has been reached. No longer accepting OC's for the time being. Maybe later or even in a spin off from this story. ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

Light from another Place

* _Authors note*_ Hello fellow gamers and readers alike. My name is DemonicalFox777 as that is my writer persona and gaming persona as well. This fanfiction is going to be about a slightly alternate version to Halo: Reach. I won't release the details in the author's notes so as to keep things from getting stale. If your want the details you're going to have to read. Please leave a comment or review. Flames are welcome. Now let's begin the story. *End Author's notes*

"Six, are you sure you can fly this thing?" Jorge asked. "I was a pilot in the Sabre Program before I was transferred to Noble Team; I know this thing better than the people who built it." I answered with confidence in his voice as Jorge transferred to the pelican that would carry the slip space bomb. "Let's just board the carrier already." Jorge said.

40 minutes of flight later:

"Incoming plasma, hold on tight." I called out. I piloted the Sabre through a complex set of evasive maneuvers to avoid the deadly plasma. "All available Sabres disengage any banshees and focus on those plasma turrets. Let the Savanna take care of their fighters." I ordered. Two Sabres flew along the hull of the carrier and fired rockets into the turrets, igniting their ammunition. "You've got a clear path to the boarding point, get to it, we've got this." The Savanna ordered. "All pilots form up on me; we're taking the fight inside." I ordered. All the Sabres landed on the platform. The troopers jumped out from the sabre cockpit as the glass slid back, and signaled ready. I jumped down through the shielding and landed on an Ultra. I wasted no time in severing the spinal column. The marines jumped down afterwards. They moved more slowly than I did since they didn't have a Spartan suit that simulated artificial gravity. They had enough gear to keep them rooted to the floor when they walked, but when they jumped they tumbled through the air.

One of the marines tripped over a piece of equipment that was lying around and tumbled into the elite's line of sight. The elite took half a second to come out of its shock induced stupor then alerted its brethren. "Shit, shit, shit!" The marine cursed as he scrambled back to the safety of the cover to avoid being roasted by the plasma fire. We'll, you know what they say", one of the marines said, "If you're going to fuck it up, get it out of the way early." Another finished. They returned fire and steadily pushed the elites back into the hangar. "Six what's taking so long?" Jorge asked over the comms. "They didn't just roll over and let us waltz right into the hangar, Jorge. We kind of have to shoot our way through!" I yelled through the comms as I fired a round into a skirmisher's head. So far the push into the hangar had been one hellish cluster fuck. The elites were everywhere and they deployed lots of the plasma cover barriers. They were determined to kill us. It was only through sheer determination that we were able to push this far, but weren't getting any farther because they pinned us down in the hallway entrance to the hangar. I was only able to get a few shots off here and there before I had to retreat back into cover to avoid plasma fire. "What the fuck do we do now?" One of the marines yelled out.

"Corporal", I called out, "Take some of your men and make a run for the left platform on my mark. Everyone else is to cover them while I flank right." I ordered. I brought up a hand and started to count down from three, when I reached zero I clenched my fist and brought it down. "Now!" The corporal and three of his men ran left while I ran right and the remaining three marines started firing wildly in the direction of the elites. The plan worked. From this elevation we could start to pick off the elites. Once a clear path along the left wall was made I dashed from my platform on the right side of the room all the way to the shield door. The corporal saw what I was planning and called out "Cover that Spartan, get their attention over here!" I ran across the room and jumped up to the platform witch was considerably easy since the artificial gravity was still only at a fraction of normal gravity. I stabbed the jackal that was up there and pushed the button on the console that was being projected off one of the platform's support pillars. The console emitted a soft ding as the hangar's protective barrier deactivated. 

"The barrier is down, just a heads up though, there's a firefight in the hangar." I said into the comms. "What they didn't give you a nice welcome party?" Jorge asked sarcastically over the comms as the pelican flew in through the left side hangar shield. The pelican's chain gun fired BMG rounds at the remaining covenant. Once they were all dead, the pelican touched down on the deck. Jorge hopped out of the back as the rear hatch descended and a couple of marines grabbed some weapon cases out of the back. They propped them up against one of the walls while I walked over to Jorge. "Have a nice flight?" I asked. "Bit of a rough ride." Jorge said with a shrug. "Spartan", the corporal called out, "re-arm if you need to, but we have to put this carrier on a refueling track so we can detonated this bomb."

Jorge nodded. "He's right; I'll stay here and protect our ride out while you and the marines take the control room." He said. I nodded my head. One of the doors to the hangar let out a beep and the lights started to flicker right before it opened and grunts ran out with the elites right behind. I ran over to the weapon cases and grabbed a shotgun and fired a shell into an elite's chest killing it. The marines started to fire rounds into the grunts while Jorge kept the elites pinned with suppressive fire from his hand held MMG. Once the covenant squad laid dead we moved on through the doorway that they had come from while Jorge stayed behind. We made it through the first hallway when we received more plasma fire from a room at the end of the hallway. Two elite, an Ultra and a General, were using the hallway as a choke point to halt our advances.

"Corporal, pop a frag in there!" I yelled from my cover in an alcove in the wall. The Corporal, who was hiding in an alcove across the hallway, nodded and pulled a fragmentation grenade off his belt, primed it, and tossed it down the hallway. The elites stopped their suppressive fire to roll out of the way of the explosive blast. I took the opportunity and ran ahead with my shotgun at the ready. The Ultra's shields were taken with the grenade and the General's shields where flashing to life at half strength. I quickly pulled the trigger on the Ultra, the buckshot easily penetrating his armor without its shields. I turned to do the same to the General but he had come out of his stupor. When I turned to pull the shotgun on him he grabbed it by the barrel and wrenched it from my hands. It clattered to the floor as the elite grabbed me by my through and lifted my off the ground. Suddenly there was a roar of gunfire as the marines ran into the room. The bullets impacted with the General's shields as they flared to life, but didn't penetrate them. One of the marines ran up to the General and tackled him around the waist. He didn't go down, but it was enough for him to let me go. I joined the marine in his brawl against the elite who was currently winning. I ran over to them and tackled the elite finally bringing him down. The Corporal ran over to us with my shotgun in hand and put a shell in the General's face. The buckshot went through his remaining shields without much problem, and killed him. I picked my-self off the ground and took my shotgun from the Corporal with a thank you. We moved further on down the hallway until we came to a door.

On the other side of it we could hear the roar of the ships guns firing the deadly plasma at the Savannah. The door opened to a large room. On the left was the ship's guns and on the right side of the room was the plasma batteries feeding the guns. There was only one occupant in the room, an Ultra that was bussing himself with firing the ship's guns. I silently ran over to him after doing another check of the room to make sure that there weren't any stealth units in there, and slipped my combat knife into the base of his skull. He let out a death gurgle as he choked on his own blood, and then slumped down to the floor. I removed my knife from his head and whipped if on his armor before replacing it in its sheath on my left shoulder as the Savannah radioed over the coms. "Sabre team, this is Savannah Actual, were taken major damage, we won't last much longer out here!" They called out.

"Savannah, disengage and get out of there!" Jorge ordered. "Negative, negative, they've hit the reactor!" The Savannah's rear hull exploded into twisted fragments of scrap metal and the rest of the ship followed suit. "The Savannah's gone Six, we've got no cover out here. Get to the bridge and put this thing on a refueling track with that super carrier." Jorge said in a solemn voice. The marines and I regrouped at the far side of the room and went in through the door. Another hallway greeted us and at the end of that hallway was another door. On the other side of that door was the bridge. The door opened with a small beep and hiss and we walked through. We expected deadly plasma to greet our presence, but instead nothing.

Inside the bridge where some elites and a few grunts, all too busy with the battle outside to take notice of the intruders on the bridge. I took a plasma grenade that I had taken from the Ultra in the other room and primed it. It came to life with a whine and I threw it at the nearest elite. It stuck to the back of his head and exploded before he even knew what had happened. The bridge erupted in gun fire and plasma, the elites and grunts firing their weapons and the marines doing the same. One of the marines tossed a frag grenade into group of elites to scatter them. I moved in with my shotgun at the ready and ejected a shell into an elite's chest, killing him. I ejected the spent shell out of the gun and immediately targeted another elite. A stealth elite had had gotten close enough to the marines to through a plasma grenade at the marines. The grenade stuck to one of the marines and blew up with a bang. Two of the marines died in the explosion and another lost his hand. This only served to motivate me to finish the fight even quicker. I quickly took care of the elites, and of them being a general and collected grenades and a plasma sword.

Once that was done I put the corvette on a refueling track with the supercarrier. I walked over the remaining marines. Only two of them were still alive, the one with the missing hand and the Corporal. The Corporal seemed physically fine if not a bit shaken up, but the marine with the missing hand was bleeding heavily. I activated the energy sword and pressed the flat of the blade to the bleeding stump. It stank of seared flesh and boiling blood. The marine nodded his thanks through clenched teeth and stood on shaky feet and braced his handless arm over the Corporal's shoulder and dew his sidearm. "We've got to get back to the pelican, let's move." I ordered. They nodded and we proceeded down the hallway that we came through before. We entered the room that housed some of the carrier's guns. A door at the far end of the room at the base of the ramp opened up to reveal a squad of grunts with an elite to boot.

They wasted no time in opening fire on us. I moved in front of the marines to shield them from the brunt of the plasma fire. The marines hobbled over to an alcove in the room and took cover. I ran to the opposite side of the room and took cover behind one of the control consoles for the guns. I swapped my shotgun out for my DMR and began sending rounds into the lone elite's shields, which began to flare up in defiance. The marines began to pick off the grunts while I dropped the elite. We moved on through the room and the hallways all the way back to the hangar which had erupted into a firefight in the ten minutes that we were gone. The marines flanked right over to the pelican and began trading rounds with the jackals.

I grabbed a sniper rifle from one of the weapon cases and ran up to one of the upper levels. I braced myself against the support pillar and started to fire rounds into key targets. The sniper rifle easily penetrated the elite's shields and helmets. The marines, even with the added sniper fire and Jorges heavy machine gun, they got pinned down by the jackals. One of them got the courage to rush the marine's position. He jumped over the barricade and bashed the Corporal with his shield and turned his attention on the wounded marine. The Jackal fired a charged shot from its plasma pistol. The over charged plasma melted his skin and left a sizzling hole where the marines face was. I fired a round into the Jackals head. "Corporal, regroup with Jorge, your position's compromised!" I yelled over the fire fight. He stood up on shaky feet of his own and retrieved the fallen marine's dog tags. Shouldering his rifle, he moved over to Jorge and the pelican and began to pick off targets. We had almost taken out the last of the elites when a door on the other side of the hangar opened up and a large group of elites ran though baring their weapons. An Ultra took notice of my position and charged up his plasma launcher.

"OH SHIT!" I yelled. He let go of the trigger and the plasma launched from the weapon and landed near me on the platform. The explosives went off and sent me flying over the edge of the platform. I impacted with the floor directly on my left shoulder and I felt something break. I rolled to my feet while holding my shoulder and tried to get over the pelican to regroup. However, an elite jumped onto my back and pulled me to the ground. Before he could do anything else he was gunned down. I looked over to who had fired the shots and saw the Corporal with his rifle in hand and the barrel smoking. He gave a small smile and turned his attention to the rest of the fight going on. I picked myself off the ground for a second time and resumed hobbling over to the pelican. An elite started to run at me with its plasma rifle drawn. I grabbed my rifle from my back with my one good hand and pulled the trigger. The gun gave an unsatisfying click. I glanced down at it and saw that the barrel was warped from the plasma launcher. I threw the gun down and grabbed my combat knife from its sheath and got into a CQC stance. The elite stopped a few feet away and examined me. "You fight by the blade; you will die by it!" He yelled in garbled English. He holstered his weapon and drew his energy sword and activated it. We circled around a few time until he swung at me in a large arc. I ducked under his swing and plunged my knife in between his shoulder blade and his ribs. He yelled out and back handed me away from him sending my knife away from me. I landed on the ground with a thud and was dazed by the impact. The elite walked up to me and placed his hoof on my chest, steadily applying more pressure. Just as he was about to plunge his sword into me I shifted under him and the blade instead up plunging into my chest severed my left arm at the shoulder. I screamed out in intense agony. Jorge heard this and turned towards me and fired his machine gun at the elite. The bullets ripped through the elite's shielding and armor like paper and he fell over dead. Jorge walked over to me and pulled me to my feet with my one good and remaining arm and hauled me back over to the pelican.

He set me down against the side of the pelican and ordered the Corporal to try and patch me up. I was still dazed from the fight and the loss of blood to pay much attention to anything, I almost didn't feel the bio foam being injected directly into my armless shoulder, almost. A few minutes later the fighting stopped and Jorge walked around the side of the pelican lugging his gun as always. He gave me a glance and then proceeded to check the bomb. "Dammit." He mumbled. "So it's going to be like that." I stood up on shaky legs and with the Corporal's help walked over to him. He looked at me and then the Corporal. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that the pelican is trashed so the only way off this heap is gravity." "And the good news?" I asked wearily. "That was the good news. Bad news is that the bomb took some damage and remote detention is a no go. I'll stay behind; you two get down there and finish the fight." He said. "No, they're going to need you down there. Besides, I won't survive an atmospheric re-entry, not with this." I said while taking a look at the stump where my arm used to be. Jorge nodded and looked at the Corporal. "So where does that leave you?" He asked.

"I don't-"He never got to finish his sentence as an elite fired a round from his needle rifle in a last ditch retaliation then slumped over finally dead. "Get going Jorge. You don't have much time." I stated. He nodded and walked to the hangar shield and looked over his shoulder. "Thanks." He said. "Don't thank me till it's over. And tell them to make it count." After that he jumped out of the hangar and began his descent to Reach. I waited for the carrier to come into close enough proximity of the super carrier to detonate the bomb. Once I came into close enough proximity to the super carrier I inputted the detonation code. There was a high pitch whine as the slip space drive warmed up and then a blinding light.


	2. Chapter 2

*Author's Notes* Sorry for those who have been waiting and questioning the story. I have been trying to make the second chapter but have also been trying to juggle school at the same time. The first chapter was nothing more than an intro to explain how Noble Six ended up in the Destiny universe. I also apologize for any misspelled words in the last chapter and future chapters like spelli9ng throat like though but I'm not going to go back and change it any time soon as I want this story to really take off before I do any finalizing to the chapters. Sorry if this an in inconvenience to anyone but I will try to avoid any misspelling in the future and I will eventually change any misspelled words in the future just continue to point out any errors as you see them and I'll rectify them in the future.

*End Author's Notes*

The Cosmo Dome, located on Earth, is a rusted monument of what we used to be, what we were, and what we will be again someday. That is if they can live that long. Years ago a giant entity known only as the Traveler appeared before Humanity promising advances in technologies and longer lasting life. But the most important thing that he promised to us was the stars. With the new advancements in technology we began to take to the stars in flocks, colonizing worlds in our solar system. This was the Golden Age. This age of prosperity and peace couldn't last long though for if there is a light then there is darkness.

The darkness came, hungering four our light and tour through our colonies and cities one by one until they came to Earth, the source of the light. It was a great battle against the darkness until it was clear that even with the help of the Traveler it was a battle that was already lost. When pushed back to the last bastion of the light, The Last City, the Traveler used his light to fight back the darkness and used his remaining light to create the ghosts.

The ghosts are smart AI's powered by the Traveler's light, and their goal is to find and revive people from the old world that would make potential Guardians. Guardians are the defenders of the light and our only hope if we wish to reclaim what humanity once had. They use the Traveler's light to influence the battlefield in ways that the human mind cannot conceive. They reside in the Tower keeping a vigilant eye over the City and a watchful eye on their enemies.

"Fire Team Sun Down please report to the Vanguard War Room for mission briefing immediately, Alicia and Lily of Fire Team Sun Down to the Vanguard War Room immediately." The Tower's PA system rang out. "What do you think they want us for now, we just came back from patrol?" Alicia, a purple Exo donning a cloak and hood asked. 'I don't know, but we better get a move on, Zavala gets impatient if it's something important." Lily, another purple Exo who donned a sort of battle robe said. "Well I need to stop off at the gunsmith first though; Banshee has a new shipment of sniper rifles that I want to check out." Alicia said.

(Alicia is a Hunter Class and Lily is a Warlock Class. Both are identical Exo's and are siblings in a metaphorical sense, and have a purple color scheme to them. They both have outgoing personalities and have been together since the beginning of when the game starts with Ghost reviving you outside the Cosmo Dome Wall, just a little back round for you if any questions have been raised. I do realize that this is a Destiny/Halo fiction but the entire first chapter is just Halo. I had to do that because I can't have Noble Six just pop into Destiny and have you accept that. I'm rambling now so I'll just shut up.)

They grabbed their respective weapons and spare magazines from the gun rack that was hanging off the wall next to their door was. Alicia had a sniper rifle and a scout rifle and Lily had a burst rifle and fusion rifle. They walked out of their shared dormitory on one of the Towers many floors and headed to the elevator that would take them to the top where the Vanguard War Room was located among the many vendors and the Speaker. The elevator doors parted to reveal the ship wright of the Tower. They gave a respective nod to the Tower's head mechanic Holiday, who only grunted in return as she pulled at a rather stubborn bolt attached to the undercarriage of a sparrow. They walked around the corner and through a hallway to the main central hub of the tower. The top of the Tower thriving in activity, many Guardians went about their business and Vendors stood at their respective spots displaying their wares and weapons. They took a right past Master Rahul who raised his hand in greeting as they past and made their way over to Banshee-44 who was the Tower's local gunsmith and fellow Exo.

"Hello Banshee, I heard that you had a new shipment of sniper rifles in today." Alicia greeted. "Hello Alicia, Lily, I was supposed to receive a shipment of sniper rifles but the order was delayed due to someone messing up the order. They apparently thought that I wanted them next week instead of now so they haven't even started on the order." He answered with a touch of anger tinting his voice. "Oh well would you mind letting me know when you do get them in?" Alicia questioned. "Sure, I'll let you know when I get them." He promised.

With that Alicia and Lily turned around and headed to the steps leading down into the Vanguard War Room. When they rounded the corner and finally entered the large room they were greeted by three very contrasting faces. There was Cayde-6, another Exo and Hunter Handler for the Vanguard; he had an amused look on his metallic face complete with a small smile. There was Ikora Ray, a dark skinned lady and Warlock Handler for the Vanguard; she had a curios look donning her face and it could be seen in her eyes that were hungry for knowledge as some Warlocks were. And finally there was Commander Zavala, an tall awoken with a take no shit from no one look on his face as he stared down the two Exo's that just entered the room; he was the handler for all Titans in the Vanguard.

"You're late." Zavala stated plainly, his voice devoid of all emotion. "We weren't expecting to be called up here so soon after coming back from patrol." Lily defended. Zavala was about to retort but Ikora beat him to it. "Regardless, you're here now so we may begin." She said. "What exactly are we here for anyways?" Alicia asked. "You're here because we detected an anomaly out in the Cosmodrome close to where you were patrolling." Cayde stated. "What sort of anomaly are we talking about here?" Lily asked. "We don't know, and that's why we're sending you to investigate." Zavala stated firmly leaving no room to argue. Cayde typed a few commands into the table's console and an orange holographic map lit up, it was the Cosmodrome, more specifically the Moth Yards, an area that planes where stored during the Great Collapse.

"This is the area that we detected the anomaly just only ten minutes ago. But the anomaly had a unique signature, similar to that of when a fallen skiff performs a short range teleport but the area that it was detected in was on ground level so that rules out that possibility." Cayde explained. "We need you two to get there, investigate, and neutralize whatever this anomaly is if it proves hostile." Zavala stated with a nod. Alicia and Lily nodded before leaving the Vanguard War Room with a new purpose, to find out what this anomaly is. "Ghost, prep the ship for launch, we're going hunting." Alicia said, "Right." Was his mechanical reply before he teleported off to get their shared jump ship prepped for launch.

After they launched from the Tower's hangar they plotted a course for the Cosmodrome. "What do you think we'll find?" Lily asked. "I don't know, I guess we'll find out when we get there." Alicia answered. Alicia's Ghost appeared next to her head and said: "We'll be arriving in a few minutes; I suggest you bring extra ammo. Recent reports suggest that the fallen are patrolling more frequently and in larger numbers as of late." Lily nodded and went to the back of the ship to stock up on her ammo reserves. The ship slowed to a halt and Ghost trans-matted them from the ship to the ground below. They materialized on the crest of a small snow covered hill that overlooked the rest of this area of the Cosmodrome.

"The Moth Yards are to the west of here, we should get a move on if we want to be back at the Tower before dark." Lily said. They materialized their respective sparrows and sped off to the Moth Yards, dodging a few fallen patrols along the way before they halted themselves on the ridge of another hill that over looked the Moth Yards. Giant passenger planes stood rusting away into nothingness, a testament to what humanity was capable of before the Great Collapse. They stood their admiring the old relics for a few minutes before Ghost chimed in over the coms. "We really should get moving, the Fallen are known to take crack shots are Guardians that idle for too long." That brought Alicia and Lisa out of their revere.

"We should split up to cove more ground." Alicia suggested. "I'll sweep around the right and circle back to the middle, you sweep left and do the same." Lily said. Alicia nodded her head in agreement and sped off with her cloak billowing out behind her. Lily did the same but circled right instead of left like Alicia had done.

After five minutes of uneventful patrolling Lily met up with Alicia on the south end of the Moth Yards. "Anything yet?" She asked. "Nothing, whatever Zavalla detected out here is probably long gone. It's going to get dark soon, we should probably head back in before it does." She said. Suddenly a Fallen Skiff warped in just over their heads however it didn't fire on them or deploy its occupants. It just continued onward until the edge of the Moth Yards where the entrance to the Satellite Array complex was before deploying its occupants, firing a few rounds from its mounted weapons into the complex entrance, and finally taking off.

"What's with the sudden increase in Fallen activity, we haven't seen any of them up until now." Alicia asked. "I don't know, but they seem to be chasing something into the complex. Maybe it's linked to the anomaly that Zavalla detected. We should kill them either way though, that's an elite task force that went in there, and they'll wreak havoc if left alive for another Guardian." Lily stated. "Right, let's go and take them out, then we'll head back to the Tower." Alicia agreed. They both sped off on their respective sparrows towards the ongoing firefight in the complex.

 _Approximately one hour earlier…_

Everything was peaceful in the Cosmodrome, specifically the Moth Yards. A few Fallen were sifting through the ancient and rusting plane wrecks hoping that they would find something interesting to bring back to their House, but were not having much luck. Most of the ancient relics had already been stripped by former Fallen crews of their valuables. But for the most part the Moth Yards was peaceful, or it was up until a pair of sparrows came barreling though the area at near hazardous speeds.

The Fallen, having forgotten their scavenged treasures or lack of, grabbed their weapons to bear on the two objects and let loose a volley of anti-personnel targeting rounds. The bolts may have been slow but were quite deadly when used with enough of its brethren and positioned properly. However the operators of the two sparrows were quite adept at maneuvering around the deadly munitions even at the speed that they were going. Soon enough the fast moving vehicles and their operators where over a hill and out of the area in no time and the Fallen went back to scavenging the ancient relics for anything that could be found a use for, and all was peaceful in the Moth Yards once again…for about ten minutes, then something else happened.

A bright flash illuminated one of the many rusting plane's interiors leaving the scavengers inside temporarily blinded by it. In its place laid a lump of steaming metal. Upon further inspection, the lump was revealed to be something else, perhaps a man or machine of sorts, it was unclear to the curios Vandal and his team of three Dregs. One of the Dregs moved in for a closer inspection of whatever this was but as soon as it got with what could be considered close proximity, an arm shot out faster than the Dreg had time to react and punched it in the face. A sickening crack emitted and reverberated throughout the metal plane, and the dreg was sent reeling back a feet before falling over dead with a sizable dent in the middle of its face. The other Dregs took one look at their fallen comrade before running out of the plane's emergency exit hatch to get reinforcements. The remaining Vandal looked back at his retreating squad and yelled out something in its native language before turning around to bear his rifle on whatever it was that just killed a Dreg with a single punch and sent another two running. 

_P.O.V. Switch_

I awoke lying on the ground of something metal and judging from my surroundings it was very old as it was badly damaged from over exposure to the elements resulting in severe rusting. That was the first thing that registered in my mind. The second was the fact that EVERYTHING hurts! I must have taking a severe beating at the hands of a Hunter because that's what it felt like. The third thing that registered itself in my mind was the fact that I was alive, very much alive apparently since everything still hurt. But how, how was I still alive? I stayed behind on the Covenant Carrier that was on a refueling track with a Super Carrier, then manually detonated a slip space drive turned makeshift bomb once I was within optimal detonation range. However, it is possible that I survived the slip space jump because of my armor. Even if I had survived a random jump like that, which I obviously did since everything still hurts, I lost an arm to an Elite before I detonated the bomb, I should have bled out at this point. Maybe the plasma sword cauterized the wound instead of leaving it a bleeding stump. But still, my armor was punctuated, that means that it was completely depressurized, which means that I should have died a horrible death long before this point either by the compression difference of the vacuum of space and my destabilized suit or suffocation …unless this atmosphere is a breathable one with the same air pressure as a regular environment.

But if I'm alive then were am I? Hang on I heard something behind me. It sounds like something alive, but not human. Was that a screech? Definitely not human, but if it's not human then that could only leave Covenant as the only plausible possibility. I better play this one carefully, I still have no idea where I am, I'm missing an arm, and my motion tracker is reading four enemies directly behind me. One of them is moving towards me, and judging from the sound of its footsteps it's not a Brute, which means my chance of killing it, whatever it is, have just increased significantly. I'll just wait until it gets close enough then I'll throw out a punch to try and stun it long enough to grab its weapon. Six feet, breathe. Five feet, you can do this. Four feet, get ready. Three feet, almost there. Two feet, just about within reach. One foot, it's now or never. I rolled over and threw out my remaining arm with my hand enclosed in a fist aiming for the first thing that I saw.

My fist connected with whatever it was in the face, letting loose a sickening crack. Whatever it was, was sent reeling for a few feet before it fell over, presumable dead, with a sizable dent in its face. I looked at whatever it was that I just killed and drew a blank. It wasn't any type of alien that I knew of and sure in Sam's Hell wasn't a human. It stood probably around four to five feet give or take and was clothed in a light armor variation that I didn't recognize. It wore a re-breather on its face and had about six eyes, two sets of three stretching across its face where a normal set of eyes would be. This was defiantly not any alien that he knew of. Was the Covenant recruiting or was something else going on here.

A flourish of movement and a bellow of alien dialect brought my attention to more important matters; there would be plenty of time to study the new aliens when they were dead. I stood up from my position on the floor and face the room's only remaining occupant, another unfamiliar alien. This one had similar features to the one that I had punched to death. The same eye set, same re-breather apparatus, and the same hostile intention. The only difference between this one and the dead one, besides being alive, was the fact that this one had four arms instead of the usual two and was clothed in a different manor of armor. However, even more important than how it looks or how many arms it had, was the fact that it had a rifle of sorts in its hands and trained on me. Before it could fire the weapon I moved to duck under the anticipated shot and rammed my shoulder into its body. The alien was sent sprawling across the floor but the weapon remained dropped at my feet. I bent down and claimed the weapon with my left hand but mentally kicked myself. You don't have a left hand anymore, hell, you don't even have a left arm anymore, and god only knows where the hell it is. I claimed the weapon with my right hand this time and pointed the newly requisitioned rifle at the alien that was only just starting to pick its self off the ground and pulled the trigger. A trio of slow, swerving bolts homed in on their target before impacting with the alien's body and leaving sizzling hole in their place. I paused for a moment and examined the weapon. It was unlike anything that I had ever seen before, that was for dam sure. It was kind of cool in its own right but I still preferred basic kinetic weaponry, more specifically, something that fires bullets instead of energy. The weapon didn't really seem to run off of ammo so I didn't bother to try and collect spare slips from the fallen aliens, it probably ran off of a battery charge anyways.

I left the metal interior of whatever it was that I was in and was temporarily frozen in place as my helmet polarized to the brighter light of the outside, then was frozen in place for a whole other reason. All around me were old, rusting passenger planes, but that wasn't what had me frozen in place. Even the UNSC had old aircraft graveyards like this one, but it was what lied beyond the rusting planes.

A great wall spanned for as far as the eye could see in either direction, a complex a ways off and up a hill stood as well. It too, like the planes, had been left to the mercy of and the elements it would seem. Almost all of it was rusted and some pieces of the building were missing either by age or by…explosives? I couldn't really tell witch from this distance, my helmet can only enhance so much after all. Even rusted and in pieces, that structure is still the best chance at surviving this mess until I can figure things out, it's obvious enough that this is hostile territory.

I started off at a slow paced, yet awkward jog, since I was missing an arm, but I had to speed it up to a full sprint when more of those weird aliens started to emerge from some of the other planes. After about ten minutes of this, with the occasional break here and there to fire at the pursing aliens, I finally made it to the entrance of the complex. The door way that led inside looked to be an old loading bay door that stood wide open. Normally I would have checked around the area and would have been a bit more cautious when entering a building such as this but I didn't have time to, the aliens weren't too far behind me.

I was about to enter the complex when strange ship suddenly warped in right as I crossed over into the building's interior, and it fired three rounds at me. The first directly impacted with my chest, but my suits shields flared to life taking the brunt of the damage. The next two didn't get a chance to connect as I dove behind an overturned desk. I peeked over my makeshift cover to see why it wasn't firing at me anymore. More of those weird aliens dropped out of the back of the ship and they slowly started to advance towards my position as the ship took off.

I needed to act fast; there were four of the two armed aliens and two of the four armed ones. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with dealing with a situation like this but the circumstances are a bit different this time around. The only other exit that I could see, besides the loading bay entrance, was a small passage way on the other side of the room. Only problem was, was that the desk that I was hiding behind was on the other side of the room with the loading bay entrance in-between. There wasn't any way to get to the passage way without being spotted so that only left one option if stealth was out, running and gunning.

With no other choice, I blind fired my rifle over my cover, and immediately all out sprinted towards the passage way, I didn't get very far though as a larger version of the four armed alien emerged from the passage way. I was forced to backtrack into a small utility room and was promptly trapped. One large alien blocked one of the two exits in the room while six others covered the last one. I don't even know what these things are and I'm going to be killed by them. Oh well, if I have to go down, then I'm going down swinging. I let loose a chuckle before aiming my gun at the nearest of the aliens from the doorway of the utility room and let loose a few burst before the alien fell in a heap, dead.

I was going to switch to another target when one of the two armed aliens produced something from its belt, a top heavy looking tube, before priming it and hurtling it at me. I ducked back in the utility room but the object stuck to the outside wall of the doorframe. The only warning I had before the object exploded into a burst of electricity was a high pitched whine. The electricity from the object, which I'm guessing was a type of grenade, jumped at me, drained my shields and left me stunned. I was still reeling from the effects of the grenade when I heard gunfire coming from outside, actual gunfire.

I heard the aliens outside the utility room screech a couple of times until it was quiet, or it was until I heard a feministic voice. "Okay, so now what, room full of Fallen and no anomaly." "Now we have a look around, whatever they were fighting has to still be in the area." Another had said. Now a new voice, a robotic voice spoke out. "I'm picking up something strange coming from the utility room in the back of the room, that could be the anomaly that we're looking for." At this point I didn't care what happened. I was exhausted from all the running and fighting, and that grenade must have hit me harder that I thought because now I just want to sleep.

I slumped down to the ground and just leaned against the wall. Before my eyes closed though, two figures walked into my line of sight, but I couldn't quite make them out in detail. However, they were obviously female if these were the voices that I heard earlier, but where is the owner to the third voice? Oh well, I can get answers for these questions when I wake up.

*Authors Notes*

Sorry it took so long to make this chapter, I was writing the next chapter for Spartan E-185, but when I saw that this suddenly became more popular I was compelled to prioritize this one over the other. Hope you like the chapter and the new characters. If you see anything wrong with this chapter, anything at all, feel free to let me know. I don't want to keep writing crap when you guys expect something good, so let me know. And as always please leave a review or flame if you feel that it is justified.

Until next time, this is Demonicalfox777 signing off…


	3. Chapter 3

*Author's notes*

It has been brought to my attention by some people that in the first chapter there were many mistakes as well as the misspelling of Cosmodrome in the second chapter. Yes, I made mistakes like misspelling names. Yes, I should have fixed them earlier. But, I though you people would have liked the story enough that it wouldn't matter. However, that is not the case so I fixed the mistakes as they were brought to my attention. If any more mistakes are brought to my attention I will do my best to fix them. I admittedly did not do any research for this story, but I figured that writing this by memory would be sufficient. So far I am pleased with this, but others are not. I have played Halo for almost seven years now and I had hoped that would be enough "research" for this project but some people aren't satisfied. For what it's worth, I'm sorry and thank for bringing the mistakes to my attention. On with the story… *End Author's notes*

 _Darkness, darkness is all I could see. It wasn't the kind of darkness that comforts you when u sleep or when you find yourself in death's embrace. No, this was something else. It was like the darkness was cold, like the dark vacuum of space. Was I in space surrounded by the wreckage of the covenant ship? Was Jorge on Reach fighting with the rest of Noble Team, did they even care that their new addition was dead inside of a month?_

 _No, wait that can't be true, I remember waking up. I remember fighting some weird aliens. I remember being cornered and then passing out after hearing voices. Everything is so confusing. Wait if I'm not dead then where am I? Could I wake up? Am I still in danger, passed out in the store room of the crumbling building? Only one way to find out…_

I opened my eyes only to shut them immediately. In the split second I had them open all I could see was a blinding light.

 _Alright, let's take this slow…_

I slowly opened my eyes expecting to be blinded by a bright light again but was disappointed; the light was much more dim this time around as my eyes had adjusted to the harsh lighting. The first thing I realized was the fact that I was out of my armor and under a small blanket. Well the blanket was fairly large but was small in comparison to me and I could feel restraints on my arm and leg.

 _Where am I?_

I was in what looked to be a sort of small hospital room. The walls and ceiling where a snow white color and the tilled floors matched the ceiling and the walls. The room reeked of antiseptic and stale air, but not blood nor did I hear any screams of the wounded, so where ever this place was it was away from a combat zone.

 _If I'm in a hospital then who brought me here, and what where those aliens that attacked me because they were definitely not part of the Covenant Empire unless they found an even uglier species than the Elites to recruit. But even if that is a possibility, which I highly doubt that it is, that still doesn't answer my question, in fact it just raises more._

Before I could think any more on the subject an audible click emitted from the door's handle.

 _Whoever brought me here really didn't want me to leave_ , _but if they think that a couple restraints and a locked door can restrain a Spartan then that raises again the question as to who brought me here. Maybe they drugged me and don't think that I need to be restrained any more than I already am._

The door opened and two people walked inside. They were female if I had to guess since even through the armor they wore their feminine curves showed. However that wasn't what had intrigued me though. The armor that they wore was unlike anything that I remember seeing in the UNSC or even the Insurrectionists using. One of the female figures was clad in a cloth suit that had a few armor plates attached in key areas, with knives attached to other places. On first glance I counted four knives on her person. Two in a cross fashion on her armored chest, one on her hip, and another on the inside of her leather boot. She also donned a cloak that reached the small of her back and a helmet covered her face. The other female character was clad in somewhat similar materials, but in a severely different fashion. While the other's armor obviously offered mobility and stealth I wasn't sure what the benefit of this particular armor set was.

The armor in question resembled something of a thick battle robe that was closed around her torso but was left open and hanging from the waist down, probably to keep her legs from being restricted by the thicker material. On her arms rested thick leather gauntlets and her legs were clad in a lighter material than the rest of her, for mobility reasons most likely, and her feet were clad in thick leather boots. No cloak and hood or knives adorned this person, but they did conceal their face from view behind an oddly shaped helmet. They just stood there expectantly looking at me as if waiting for me to speak to them. Silently, the moment drew on in awkward silence until I spoke up.

"Where am I?" I croaked out.

 _I must have been out of it for a while if my voice could break like this._

They didn't answer right away which raised a red flag. They silently glanced at each other before the one in the battle robe nodded to the other. They looked back at me before the one with the hood and cloak spoke up.

"We can't answer all your questions at the moment, but you are safe. The Vanguard leaders will be with you shortly, in the meantime your wounds are being tended to."

A female voice rang out, but something was off about that voice. While it was obviously female it sounded off, almost robotic, must be the helmet's exterior audio system. Still, this Vanguard was something definitely new and not UNSC. I could get my answers later, right now I'm being tended to, out of immediate danger, and I can rest for a while. I fell into a restless sleep.

 _Usually I don't dream since the few hours of sleep I get is usually due to passing out from extended time in the field, but this time it was different, I dreamt. I dreamt of fighting, fighting the covenant to take control of their ship. I dreamt of the marines dying one by one in the most painful ways. I dreamt about Jorge looking at me with disappointment and discuss at my failure to keep the marines alive. I dreamt of how he ordered me to stay behind as penance for my incompetence. Of course that didn't happen, but that didn't stop it from seeming any less real at the time._

I awoke in a cold sweat, panting hard, and pulling against my restraints in an effort to sit up to no avail. The two, who I'm still assuming are female, pulled out rifles from somewhere on their person and had them trained on me.

After a few minutes of trying to get my breathing under control I asked them, "How long was I asleep?"

Realizing I wasn't a threat or trying to get out of the restraints lowered their weapons and the one in the battle robe answered, "About twenty minutes. Why did you wake up screaming your head off and who's Jorge?" She asked, not in a demanding or threatening tone, but it almost seemed like a tone of caring.

No, no that can't be it. No one could care about me, I let everyone down, let them die. It must be the helmet's audio systems. I realized that they were still looking at me expectantly for an answer,

"Who?" I asked.

Maybe they were gullible enough too fain ignorance.

"Don't play stupid, you where rambling in your sleep. You kept saying Jorge over and over, so who is he." The other one demanded.

Before I could continue with a reply the door opened and in walked three more curios figures. The first was a giant of a man with pale blue that could rival Jorge in size. He wore an unfamiliar armor configuration as well. He had this stoic do not fuck with look on his face, perhaps a Spartan? The next to enter the room was a short African American lady who also donned an unusually purple battle robe. This one gave a small smile to the other two. She seemed nice enough, which is what worries me. The ones you least expect are the ones to hurt you the most. The final figure that came in was also wearing a hood and cloak but it was what he was that made me do a double take.

"So this is the anomaly that we picked up on our scanners?" The one with the hood and cloak answered.

The lady with the hood nodded her head in agreement, "Ya, this is him. We found him fighting an elite squad of Fallen. After we moved to assist we found him passed out from exhaustion and blood loss." The woman with the helmet and battel robe explained.

"I'm right here, I can explain more accurately if you want?" I spoke up.

"Then start with who you are and what you were doing in the Cosmodrome." The man with the blue skin ordered pointedly.

Obviously this was someone of a high rank.

"Sir, Spartan B-312, team designation Noble Six of Noble Team, I was part of Operation Uppercut, a counter offense to the covenant capital ship orbiting Reach. The plan was to use a slip space drive as a make shift bomb. The remote detonator was destroyed and our pelican's engines took a hit. I stayed behind to detonate the bomb manually while Noble Five free fell back to Reach to link up with the rest of Noble Team. The next thing I know I wake up in a rusted relic of a plane fighting aliens that I didn't know existed. I got corned in a building and then passed out. I guess your team moved to assist since I'm still alive." I finished with a huff.

They all looked between each other and those without helmets had confused looks attached to their faces. They turned to me and the one with the blue skin addressed me.

"Have you lost your mind, what are you going on about?! Covenant, Operation Uppercut, slip space bomb? I don't like being lied too, so what really happened because we picked up a strange anomaly coming from that area and then we send out a team of Guardians only to rescue your sorry ass from an elite squad of Fallen!" He roared.

"Sir, I don't understand, that is what happened. Unless…" I trailed off. "What planet and system is this?" I asked with a sense of urgency in my voice.

They seemed taken aback at either my tone or the question, I didn't care. I needed answers, right now!.

"Your on planet Earth, of the Solar System in the Milky Way Galaxy." Cayde chimed in.

I could feel the pigment drain from my face.

 _Then it's true. It wasn't possible, I mean it was in theory, but it can't be happening to me, not with a campaign against the Covenant raging so close to Reach. Was I transported to an alternate reality through a slip space anomaly? No, no this can't be happening._

I started to hyper ventilate, making the others in the room look alarmed. The African American put a hand on the blue skinned man's shoulder; it looked so small in comparison.

"Maybe you over did it this time?" She stated softly. The man with the hood took a step toward me and raised his hands in a calm manor and stated, "Calm down, calm down, your fine." "No! No I'm not!" I spat now pulling against my restraints. "And why is that, please elaborate." The African American asked in a calming tone.

After a few minutes I got my breathing under control and started to think things through.

 _If I am in an alternate reality then how do I get back, actually how do I get this to make sense to these people, and how do I go about this without being thrown into a mental ward for sounding crazy._ They were looking at me expectantly waiting for an answer.

"This is going to sound crazy but I'm not from this reality, I'm from an alternate reality or dimension or something." I stated.

This got me some strange reactions. The two in the armor looked at each other while the robot in the hood and cloak did a double take. The African American looked at me slack jawed and the big blue guy still had his stoic expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, could you please elaborate further?" The African American lady asked after regaining her composure. "I'm not from this dimension; I'm from an alternate reality where Humans have formed one singular military force called the UNSC and have been fighting a bloody war against the alien conglomeration known as the Covenant." I stated in a huff. "Right, we'll have him locked up in the brig until we can arrange transport to a mental ward for treatment." The blue one stated while turning around to leave.

The other two that came in with him turned to leave as well and the two armored females moved to take me to this brig.

"WAIT!" I cried out. They stopped and turned to me and the other two females took a step back as well. "Look at my armor system; do you have anything like that in this dimension? The UNSC and ONI insignia are painted on to it. In the back left utility pouch on my belt line are my dog tags and TAC pad. Please, you have to believe me." I begged.

This got them to think; they turned to each other and began to talk to each other.

"He doesn't seem to be lying; maybe he really is from another dimension." The African American lady started. "Do you realize how crazy that sounds?" The blue one argued. "I'm an Exo, you're an awoken, and we all have special abilities from a small sentient planet in the sky, I think that a man from another dimension isn't all that crazy." The robot pointed out. "Fine." The blue man relented.

They turned back to me and the blue one spoke up.

"For right now, we'll give the benefit of the doubt. You'll stay here for now and recover while we look over your armor and make a decision on what to do with you. But let me make one thing clear, if we find out your lying or make any kind of trouble I'll though you in a the mental ward myself, do I make myself clear?" He said sternly.

"Sir yes sir." I stated.

He nodded satisfied and the walked out without another word, the other two following suit. The door was shut with an audible click and I was left in silence with the other two females in the room, but the silence didn't rein long though.  
"You can put your weapons away; I'm not exactly in fighting condition even if I wanted to try something." I stated.

Though weapons never bothered me since my entire life has revolved around the concept of war and weapons, they seemed like they really didn't want to keep them trained on me for however long it took for those people to come to a decision. They looked at each other before shrugging and then leaned them up against the wall within arm's reach. Again silence reined and again it was broken, but this time by the one in the hood and cloak.

"So what are you?" She asked.

I didn't answer immediately, I had to think things over carefully if I wanted to avoid the mental ward, then again what better way to earn their trust than to be truthful.

"I am a Spartan." I stated evenly. "A what?" The other spoke up. "Maybe I should start at the beginning. Humanity, in my dimension anyways, was exploring and colonizing the outer reaches of deep space when we came across a conglomeration of aliens that worshipped an ancient dead race thinking them to be there gods. They called themselves the covenant and they started a religious campaign against Humanity demanding our complete extinction to appease their gods. We were winning at first until set back after set back finally pushed us back into civilian systems. At this point a top secret program for the development of genetically altered super soldiers was brought to fruition after years in the making. I was indoctrinated at the age of six into the Spartan three program." I explained.

"You were made into a super soldier at the age of six!" The one in the battle robe exclaimed. "Not exactly, I was trained in war tactics, hand to hand combat, weapons usage, and more from the age of six to eleven. Then I was genetically altered into a super soldier and continued my training until I was cleared for duty. After that I was sent on various missions for a number of years until being transferred to Noble Team. On our first mission we engaged covenant forces that on planet Reach, they weren't even supposed to be there. The frontline wasn't even pushed back to that point." I explained.

"Wait, why is them being on Reach so important?" The one in the hood spoke up.

"Reach was the last line of defense against the Covenant, a shield world to Earth. If they take Reach then they'll have a strait shot at Earth and a lot of people will die. The back bone of the UNSC will be broken and it won't take long for the rest of our defenses to crumble afterwards." I continued.

"Did you push them back off the planet?" The one in the battle robe asked. "I don't know if we won or not. In a desperate effort to destroy the Covenant Capital Ship orbiting Reach we got the green light for Operation Uppercut. We linked up with a repair station designated Anchor 9 and defended the station with short range fighters called Sabres. During the defense the station's crew performed a service hall-out on the UNSC Savannah, removing and prepping the frigate's slip space drive for the operation. The plan was to board a Covenant ship and put it on a refueling track with the Flagship and then detonate the Savannah's slip space drive as a makeshift bomb. However, during the boarding process and when I took a team to the bridge to initiate a refueling sequence, our ride off the ship and the remote detonator took some nasty hits. The team I took to the control room died in the fighting and I lost my arm to an elite with an energy sword. My teammate, Noble five, freefell to the planet while I stayed behind to manually detonate the bomb. After that I woke up in that rusted out plane fighting those aliens." I finished with a huff.

At first they didn't move or speak or so much as make a sound to the point where I thought they were dead inside their helmets. Then the one in the battle robe spoke up, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"That's quite a tale, but I do believe you, the scares and missing arm are enough proof to convince me, but it will probably take more to convince Commander Zavala." She said.

That raised a very important question in my mind, one that my future in the field could depend on. If I find my way back to my own dimension if by some miracle, how will I fight with only one arm? Sure, Noble Two had a cybernetic prosthetic, but I doubt that I can get one until I'm back in my own dimension, and if the fight that I had experienced when I first woke up was any indication than I would need to fight to get back to my dimension, and that means that I would need my arm.

Just then the door opened up and in walked who I would guess would be Commander Zavala and the other two from earlier. They stood at the foot of my hospital bed and studied me for a second with some of the best damn poker faces I have ever seen; they could give a Spartan a run for their money.

Then Commander Zavala spoke up, "After careful consideration and looking over your armor systems and even viewing video footage from your helmet's camera recording feed, we have come to a unanimous decision, we believe you." This got my hopes up.

"However", he continued, "What we saw, your abilities and combat skills, we have come to the decision that while you may be missing an arm, you are dangerous. Now with that in mind, and against my better judgment, we have also come to decision of asking you a very important question; will you join us in our fight? We want to help you get back to your own dimension, but right now we cannot spare the manpower or the resources to help you. Now if you help us then maybe we can spare some people to look into the matter. So, will you help us?" He asked.

I didn't answer him right away. I had to consider the options rather carefully.

 _On one hand, I get involved in a fight that isn't mine for the chance of finding a chance to get back to my own reality. On the other hand was the implied imprisonment in a loony bin._

"It sounds like I don't have a choice, do I?" I asked. It was rhetorical, but sure enough I got a serious answer. "You don't." He said sternly _._

 _Was this guy always so strict?_

"Then I guess I accept." I stated. "Good, welcome to the vanguard, you'll be labeled a titan due to your fighting style and body build, which means you'll report directly to me." He said, gesturing to the others in the starting with the robot in the hood.

"This is Cayde-6, he's in charge of the Hunters, and this is Ikora Rey, she leads the Warlocks. And the two over there are Alicia, a Hunter, and Lily, a Warlock. You'll be joining their fire team, Fire Team Sun Down. In the meantime rest while you can and I'll look into getting you a new arm. Welcome to the Vanguard Titan."

"Sir, I'm rested up enough and ready for duty." I stated.

He looked at me for a second and studied me, then smirked.

"Very well, if you say you're ready, then you're ready. You'll report for duty with the rest of the fire team when they receive assignments."

With that said he abruptly turned and left with Ikora and Cayde in tow. Alicia and Lily both removed their helmets, revealing themselves to be purple colored robots.

"Welcome to the team, any questions? Alicia asked with a smile. "What are you and what are we fighting?" I asked slowly at first thinking that I might be coming off as insulting.

"Fire Team Sun Down to the Vanguard War Room, Fire Team Sun Down to the Vanguard War Room for immediate assignment." The intercom rang out.

"If you're really mission ready then you should come with us, we'll get you your weapons and armor afterwards." Alicia said. "Sounds good to me, but I'm still restrained." I stated. "Oh right, let me get that for you." Lily said sheepishly.

Once the restraints were removed and I was free, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and went to stand. I quickly realized through that I didn't have any clothes on. They must have removed the under suit when they removed the armor system and you can't wear any clothing when you where the suit since it would disrupt the suit's sensors. I quickly covered myself up and Alicia and Lily immediately turned away from me.

"Uh, sorry about that." I said sheepishly, I honestly should have realized that when I moved to get out of the hospital bed. "No, it's our fault; it didn't cross our minds to tell you that you were naked." Lily replied back. "Wait here, we'll go and get you something to wear until you can get your armor back." Alicia started and then left with Lily in tow.

 _I still didn't get any answers to my questions, but I can get them later. Maybe I could ask for access to their History Archives later if they had any. I'm still not sure what is in this dimension and what isn't. For all I know they don't even have weapons that fire actual bullets, they could be like the Covenant and use energy based weapons._

My thoughts were interrupted when the door cracked open and in slid a set of clothes. I stooped down and picked up the clothes and laid them out on the Hospital bed.

The clothes consisted of a pair of black cargo pants, a black shirt with some sort of insignia on the shoulders, and a pair of high guard, black combat boots. The pants where baggy enough that they would fit my abnormally large body, the boots would probably be fine, but the shirt looked like it would be a bit snug.

I merely shrugged it off and decided to don the clothes, I would be back in my armor soon right? After a few minutes of dressing I opened the door to see Alicia and Lily out in the hallway looking in any direction that wasn't mine.

"Should we get moving?" I asked.

They jumped a bit before turning Alicia nodded and walked down the hallway with Lily following close behind. I just shrugged off the odd behavior and followed, for all I know that could be normal in this dimension. After about five minutes of walking we reached an elevator.

"This will take us to the whip wright where guardians go to get repairs on their ships and sparrows." Lily stated. "What's a sparrow?" I asked.

The only sparrow I knew of was the bird.

"A sparrow is a short range one person recon vehicle that Guardians use to move around in the field. They're lightly armored, lack weapons, and are built for speed." Alicia explained.

I just nodded and decided to just go with it. We entered the elevator and pressed the button that would take us to the roof. The elevator ride was short lived in awkward silence and the elevator opened up to the sounds of a mechanics shop. We walked out of the elevator and stood on an elevated platform that overlooked a large storage bay housing unfamiliar ships of all colors and sizes.

"Wow." Was all that I could say. Alicia and Lily just laughed at my lack of words and Alicia said, "This is the ship wright."

"So this is the one that's got the entire Tower talking?" A blonde woman in overalls covered in grease spoke up while walking over from a nearby work station. "Spartan B-312 team designation Noble Six." I stated firmly.

It took all my discipline not to salute just out of reflex when giving my Spartan ID.

"Whoa soldier boy, I only understood about half of what you just said, and I'm not military. I'm, I guess you could say, I'm the head mechanic hear at the tower. Anyways, names Amanda Holiday and if you need anything dealing with ships or sparrows you come find me here in the ship wright." She said holding out her hand for a hand shake.

Suddenly I felt really stupid for doing all that, putting that aside I shook her hand. She smiled and then turned around and walked off to somewhere else in the ship wright.

"Come on, we need to get the War Room." Lily said.

We walked down a hallway and then out into a sort of central plaza on top of a massive tower. There were people standing behind stands selling strange rifle models and other weapons and then there were people walking about the tower dressed in civilian clothes.

 _This definitely isn't any military instillation that I've ever seen before. The UNSC is a lot stricter when it came to who was allowed on base and they definitely didn't have anyone selling arms out of a stall._

"Welcome to the Tower ." Alicia and Lily said climatically while raising both their arms to gesture to the entire area. "So, what do you think?" Lily asked turning to me.

"It's definitely different than any UNSC Military Instillation that I've ever seen." I stated. "Well we should get moving." Alicia said.

We walked past the different vendors and people in the plaza earning many stares from people looking in our direction. We went down a set of stairs and entered a big room with a sunken in area in the middle that housed a long table covered in maps and stacks of papers. Ikora, Cayde, and Zavala were all there waiting for us it seems.

"You're late." Zavala stated pointedly.

"We had to find Six here a set of clothes and we stopped by in the ship wright to introduce him to Amanda." Alicia explained.

He seemed to accept this and just continued on with a mission briefing.

"We have reports of an elite Fallen Strike Squad operating within close proximity to the Rasputin's hidden bunker. While we don't think that they can get in or even know it's there, it won't take long for them to find a way in. Your mission is simple; clear them out and secure the immediate area. I'll be monitoring your progress from here and will let you know if anything changes."

Then, turning to me, he said, "You should talk to outfitters here in the tower for weapons and then stop off at your new appointed quarters to find your armor. We have an old Exo arm for you, but the installment will have to wait until after the mission, dismissed." He stated with a nod.

We turned and left the Vanguard War Room to prep for the mission. This should prove an interesting fight since I only have one arm.

*Authors notes*

Hello readers, I was recently persuaded into making a paring for Six. I have yet to decide who other than it will be an Exo. If any of you have any other ideas I would like to hear them so just PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. And for all of you people who are just starting to read the story please like it or favorite it or something, but leave what you think about it in a review. Thank you.


	4. Chapter 4

*Author's Notes*

Hello readers and nerds alike. I'm back with another installment of Light From Another Place. It was brought to my attention that Noble Six just assumed that he was in another dimension without any explanation or thought. I'm sorry that I just overlooked an important detail like that and I hate myself for it. It has been revised to an extent, I would have done more but I wanted to get another chapter going before I got bored of writing. I hope it helps a little bit anyways and thank you Oberon the fox for pointing this out. Enough rambling, time to get on with the story, yes?

*End Author's Notes*

 _I have no idea how I'm going to manage this fight with only one arm, but I'll manage. I've got a team to back me up. Once I get my armor back and this_ Exo arm _installed then things should run a bit smoother after that._

I was brought out of my thoughts by a nudging coming from my right. Looking over I was met with the gaze of Lily, she gestured in front of us.

There was another robot sitting behind a long table with weapons disassembled across it and weapon filled racks covering the wall behind him.

This particular Exo was different from Lily and Alicia though. He had a soft blue and yellow color scheme and had multiple antennas sprouting from the side of his head. The rest of him was concealed in a blue robe with a green overlap at the collar.

"This is Banshee; he handles most of the Vanguards general arms. He'll get you set up with weapon load out and ammunition." Lily explained.

He didn't speak at first, just kept looking at me, probably sizing me up, weather it was for a fight or to determine what weapons I would be more suited for I couldn't tell.

"My name is Banshee; I deal arms to Guardians. What weapons are you familiar with?" He asked.

"Noble Six, my usual weapon loadout in my own dimension was a Designated Marksmen's Rifle and an M6G magnum. Do you have anything like that?" I asked.

"We do have few weapons like what you describe. Scout rifles are slow firing but pack a mean punch, they the weapon choice for most Marksmen. However, this magnum that you described, we have two options for it. There's the hand cannon, which is a high caliber revolver with six rounds, or we have a side arm, lower caliber, but more rounds per clip and an increase fire rate. All weapons are designated into three classifications, primary, secondary, and heavy. The hand cannon and the scout rifle are both primaries. I can't give you the hand cannon and the scout rifle." He explained.

"Then I'll take the scout rifle and the sidearm. That is if that's acceptable?" I asked.

He just nodded and walked over to a weapon rack and pulled off a rifle, then grabbed a pistol from a case off to the side. Setting them down, he walked away to a box and produced six clips, three for the rifle and three for the pistol, and set them down on the table. He walked away again, and this time he came back with a box of ammo for the clips.

"Load your weapons, and after each mission, you should come find me for refills." He said and then walked away without another word to attend to someone else.

I picked up the first clip, and was at loss for a viable way to load it. I would need two hands to load it, and that was one more than I had at the moment. Maybe I should have stayed in the hospital room until I got that new arm.

Lily, seeing my predicament, snatched the clip from my hands and began to load it. I just nodded my thanks to her, too embarrassed to trust myself to speak.

Once the magazines where loaded and I had my weapons we walked back down the set of stairs that would take them back to the Vanguard War Room but stopped at another table in a room just before the War Room.

"This is Lord Shaxx, he is the Vanguard's Crucible handler." Alicia introduced as we stood on the other side of a table, across from a man dressed in armor.

His armor was mainly white with orange covering the right side of his helmet while a horn protruded out from the left side. He had fur adorning his shoulder plates and a cloth hanging haphazardly from his hips.

"I take it this is your armor then." He said while gesturing to the familiar beat up set of MK III Spartan armor sitting on a table pushed into the far corner of the room.

I nodded.

"We didn't do any cosmetic repairs, though we did plug any punctures in the armor and restored the internal hardwire. It's ready when you are." He stated.

"How did you fix the armor? You don't have access to the same materials from what I can see and you don't even know the schematics to the armor." I pointed out.

"We were admittedly puzzled at first by the armor's configuration but we had some of our top Ghosts examine it and then we used Glimmer to replicate the material in the armor to repair it." He stated. I just gave him a look of utter confusion in response to his explanation.

"I take it, from the look on your face, that you don't even know what I just said." He stated with a slightly irritated tone to his voice.

"I've never heard of Ghosts or glimmer, the rest of it I understood just fine." I replied back.

"Well Ghosts are advanced AI's powered by the Traveler's light; they assist Guardians in the battle field providing tactical advice and information. Glimmer is a programmable material used as a currency here in the Tower. It can be programmed to take the form of any material and it's just as strong and durable as the real thing." He stated.

 _I sort of understood what he was saying, advanced AI's and programmable material. But Traveler's light? What the hell was that?_

I just nodded my head in response and moved to grab the armor heavy set of armor with Shaxx following close behind.

"We did plan on making a few modifications later on to the armor at the request of Commander Zavala. The armor is going to be modified so that it can accommodate the Exo arm that you're supposed to have installed." He explained. I just nodded taking this all in.

I grabbed the helmet and looked at it. Hadn't changed a bit, still dinged up and scratched to hell and back. But did keep me alive this long, it was like an old friend, time to go back to work old friend.

Turning around I addressed Lily and Alicia.

"Do you have anywhere I can change into the suit?" I asked. Lily nodded

"You can change in the room where you woke up." She stated. I grabbed the skin suit and decided to leave the rest of the armor there. I could come back for after. I left with Lily and Alicia in tow toward the elevator in the hangar and finally the hospital room.

I entered and closed the door behind me with Lily and Alicia on the other side. I sighed and began to strip down to nothing before pulling on the skin suit. It took a couple of minutes, and one fall, but I finally managed to put it on.

I opened the door and looked around seeing no one in the hallway. Where were Alicia and Lily? I was about to head back into the room to wait for them when they came around the corner from the elevator wheeling a cart piled high with my armor pieces. However they seemed to falter in their step when they looked at me. Again, odd behavior, maybe it was something about me. No, that couldn't be it; I'm a Spartan, a product and weapon of war.

They finally wheeled the cart over to me.

"Your armor is incredibly heavy; we had to use a heavy lift cart from the shipwright to move it." Alicia stated with a huff.

I only nodded in response, eager to get back in my armor and back into the fight… even if it wasn't my fight. I grabbed the cart and pulled it into the armor and started to lay out the pieces on the hospital bed.

After about twenty minutes I was finally armored up and ready for combat. Usually I would be ready in ten but without my arm, I was considerably stumped when it came to putting on the left side portion of my armor. After about five minutes of trying to put on the said armor and failing miserably, Lily and Alicia helped to put on the separate pieces with little trouble.

"All set?" Lily asked.

"Yes, I'm ready for combat." I stated while putting on the suit's helmet. They both nodded and left the room with me following close behind.

Now that I was back in my suit I felt more comfortable in my current surroundings. The heads up display came blinking into existence after performing a system reboot. The HUD displayed the suit's systems after performing a full diagnostics exam, displaying all systems green. The shield generator was reading at full capacity. The suits servos were ready for use. The only thing that needed to be tinkered with was the IFF reader. It was reading enemies all over. I would have to reset the friend or foe parameters later.

We walked to the elevator and then rode it up to the shipwright and stepped out. The woman from earlier, Amanda was her name, turned away from a nearby work bench and took a step back when she glanced at us.

"What the hell is that?" She asked, while reaching for a large wrench behind her.

"Noble Six, mam." I stated evenly.

She didn't react at first, but eventually put the wrench down and walked over.

"So this is you in your armor, huh? Well god dammit, if that doesn't make the Fallen think twice then I don't know what will." She stated with a smirk gracing her face. "So what brings you to my side of the Tower then?"

"We're here to leave for a mission." Lily responded.

Amanda nodded and gestured to the landing pad on the floor below.

"Well I won't keep you from doing your job, since it's saving the rest of humanity, my ass included, so head out when you're ready." She stated while walking back to the workbench she was hunched over before we walked in.

Lily and Alicia both waved goodbye at her and exited down a set of stairs and started walking between a rows of star ships until they came to a pair of identical ships parked next to one another.

"These are our ships; you'll be riding with me until you can get your own." Lily explained. "Ghosts, prep the ship for launch." Alicia and Lily ordered to seemingly no one.

Suddenly, two machines dematerialized out of nowhere and started to prep the ship for launch.

"Those are our ghosts." Alicia explained while entering her own ship while Lily dragged me off to hers.

The inside of the ship was pretty small, especially a Spartan. The front of the ship was a two seater cockpit while the back of the ship was a storage designed with a sort of comfort area. There was a couch and a futon with a throw down rug on the floor.

Lily must have caught me eyeing the back of her ship as she spoke up.

"Sometimes Guardians are deployed in the field for days at a time, so it helps to have somewhere comfortable to rest from time to time." She explained. I just nodded, not really being able to relate. Spartans could be deployed in the field for days on end and not have to rest, even if they were given the option.

We took our seats at the front of the ship, strapped ourselves in, and prepped for takeoff. The lights in the interior of the ship powered on and the engines cycled to life with a hum. Out the viewing window, we could see Alicia's ship undergo similar functions. With a sudden lurch the ship began to hover in the air until it finally, with a hum from the engines, took off from the hangar.

"Alicia, are you there?" Lily asked through her helmet. I didn't hear a reply since my helmet wasn't tuned to the correct frequency, nor did I have the proper access to their team channel if it was encrypted. Lily looked over at me for a second before she tapped the side of her helmet. I shook my head in response.

"Set your helmet com to the frequency for the team channel." She said as my HUD came up with a notification about receiving a file containing the team channel. I set it for the frequency but I still need the encryption key to access it.

"Access code?" I asked. "Access code 11479." She stated.

I entered the code and my helmet com came to life with chatter from Alicia and her Ghosts.

"How do you think he'll hold up in battle if he has only one arm?" Alicia's ghost asked.

"I'll be fine, Spartans are supposed to adapt and overcome even the most difficult obstacles." I chimed in.

"Good to see you're on the team channel." Alicia stated.

After her reply, the com channel went quite, but Lily was making movements so she must be communicating with Alicia or her Ghosts, probably on a private channel. Almost ten minutes had passed by before Lily spoke up.

"Were almost there, were going to drop off a little ways away from the target. The target is heavily guarded and very dangerous, so be careful. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt out there. We're dropping in five minutes so be ready." Lily ordered.

"Yes mam." I replied back and began to check over my weapons to make sure they were ready and were I could reach them with my one arm.

My Scout Rifle was on my back within arm's reach, I would only have one clip, which was about twelve rounds counting the one in the chamber, before I would have to switch over to my sidearm, a reload would take to long if the fight was still going on. The side arm was attached to my outer right thigh plate. Fifteen rounds counting the one in the chamber before I would have to struggle my way through another reload, but I would probably have to resort to CQC at that point.

 _I really am in over my head this time. In another dimension, in a fight that isn't my own, fighting along strange robots and blue people, fighting even stranger aliens, yep definitely in over my head…that or I was seriously crazy._

I was nudged out of my thoughts by Lily.

"We're here, lets head out. It's a bit of a walk to our target, but we are in enemy territory so stay frosty, ok?" She asked with a smile and a tilt of her re-helmeted head. I only offered a silent nod in affirmation before we got up from our seats and exited the ship.

Outside was a somewhat similar setting. Last time I was here was in worse shape than I would've liked and being attacked by unfamiliar aliens. Yep, back in the plane graveyard, now I'm here to do the hunting instead of being hunted.

Looking to my left, I saw Alicia exit here ship and walk over to us with her weapon in her hands. Her ship and Lily's both closed their respective exit hatches before powering up and taking off to somewhere else.

"Where're the ships going?" I interjected into the conversation that they had started up between the two of them.

"Our Ghosts are going to take the ships up to low orbit and program an orbiting course; they'll be waiting for us when we get back." Alicia answered.

"Oh." Was my only response as I looked out over the barren landscape.

We set down atop a hill that over looked the ancient plane yard, snow and debris littered the area, must have been winter or we were somewhere up north.

We started our trek through the broken planes that sat in stone cold silence. The silence is almost always something to be wary of. Sometimes it could be your ally, other times it was your worst enemy. A sniper, one who strikes from the shadows and strikes fear into the hearts of his targets, uses silence like a shroud; it encompasses him before he pulls that trigger. Sometimes though, silence is your worst enemy because it leaves you alone, with nothing but yourself and your thoughts. Thoughts that could make you panic, second guess yourself, could get you killed.

Silence is something always to be wary of.

I shook myself from my thoughts, time to get on target Six. Glancing around, I really couldn't see any enemy contacts and nothing was showing up on the IFF except Lily and Alicia, both where walking ahead of me by a couple of feet side by side. I just sighed and resigned myself to looking around for a threat that may or may not be out there.

After about five minutes we stood at the base of a large hill that went almost straight up with a well worn pathway, complemented with rusted hand railing, that went to the top starting from the left, then to the right, and then back to the left until it finally hit the top of the hill.

I had to crane my head all the way back just to see what stood atop the hill, a building, well worn and crumbling, but still a building. This was the building that I was trapped in by the aliens. And atop this very building was a form, a form of one of the Aliens.

The alien in question raised a large rifle that began to glow at the end of the barrel. Quickly recognizing the weapon to be a sniper rifle, I surged forward and pushed the two Exos forward. They went tumbling forward and landed in a heap of tangled limbs.

In response to this act, Alicia trained her rifle on me instantly without untangling herself from Lily, if I had to guess, under her helmet she was probably pissed off at being shoulder bashed to the ground by a Spartan.

Before she could pull the trigger or even ask why I did what I did, the alien on top of the building let loose with his rifle, the singular energy bolt impacting with my abdomen. Luckily my energy shields flared to life before the bolt could actually make contact with me. I quickly dove at the base of the hill where Alicia and Lily where busy untangling themselves from each other. The top of the hill blocked the alien from taking another shot at us.

"Thanks for the save Six." Alicia spoke. I just nodded barely hearing her while looking for a way to get an angle on the sniper or try to move up the hill without entering his field of fire, but coming up short. There was no way up the hill without being exposed to the sniper's wrath, and the only good cover that could offer a good angle on the sniper's position was a wing tip of a plane that was vertically embedded into the ground. Only problem was, was that is stood twenty yards away, twenty yards of open ground.

"Alright, here's the plan", I spoke up, "there's no way up the hill without being exposed to the sniper, however, that plane wing over there could offer a good angle on his position without being exposed."

Alicia's rifle de-materialized with a flash of light and a sniper rifle of her own appeared in her hands.

"I'll run for the cover, you and Lily draw his attention from me." Alicia ordered, her tone leaving no room for arguing. We nodded our heads in agreement.

I looked over at Lily while drawing my side arm from my thigh.

"On the count of three, ready?" I asked. She nodded, chambering a round in her own rifle.

"Three", I counted, "two", Alicia got into a sprinter's stance, "one!"

Lily and I back pedaled from the base of the hill, firing off bullet after bullet in quick succession to try and get the sniper's attention on us while Alicia sprinted the twenty yards to the plane wing. It seemed to work as the sniper witched his aim from the running Exo to me and Lily. He let off a shot with a resounding crack, it was directed at me. Instead of letting my energy shields take the hit, I tucked and rolled to the left, the energy bolt only missing me by a few inches before it struck the ground harmlessly.

Alicia made it to the embedded plane wing before sliding into a crouch behind it and bracing her rifle against it. She let off a shot, hitting the sniper in the leg, knocking him off the roof of the crumbling building. I replace my side arm at my thigh; I only shot five rounds, leaving ten left in the chamber.

We regrouped at the base of the hill.

"Great job covering me, thanks." Alicia praised.

"Good shot Alicia." Lily remarked.

I just stood off to the side; I was never really good with social things like this. I could be sarcastic sure, but other than that I really was inept at most social skills. They must have noticed me just standing off to the side quietly since they both turned their attention to me.

"You alright Six, you've been awfully quiet since we got here." Lily inquired.

"I'm fine; I just was never really big on socializing." I answered.

"Why?" Alicia chimed in.

"Most Spartans are trained for war, so they don't really focus on teaching social skills other than how to operate on a team in the field." I explained.

"Oh, well we'll have to work on your social skills later." Lily stated with conviction.

I didn't even reply to that, I was too shocked to. No one, not anyone except a fellow Spartan has ever offered to help us without gaining something from it, but here was a perfectly fine example of someone willing to help me, a genetically altered super soldier, because the genuinely wanted to. This was honestly a first for me.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Alicia spoke up.

"We should get moving, could be more snipers in the area."

I nodded in response, thankful for the break in the awkward silence.

We moved up the hill and into the building without encountering any contacts, not even on the IFF. We walked through the building which I found out to be an entrance to a complex that spanned over the other side of the hill.

Still no contacts.

The only things inside the complex where turned over desks, strewn about papers, and a fine layer of dust covering every surface it could and even clouding the air. Good thing my helmet had a filter built into it, otherwise I would probably be in a coughing fit right now.

Finally the hallway came to an end when we walked into a large square room; the only other entrance besides the one we came in from was sealed off by a loading dock door.

"Ghost, see if you can get that door open." Lily ordered.

The robotic form of the Ghost materialized above her outstretched hand and floated over to a key pad before firing a blue beam from its core.

We took up a defensive formation around the machine as he tried to open the door. The room was perfect for an ambush, only one way in and one way out. That could easily be turned into a choke point while reinforcements rushed in from the newly opened up doorway. Shit, those aliens could be waiting on the other side of the door.

I switched my aim from the entrance to the room to the now ascending loading dock door, only to find nothing but a strange crystal formation casting an eerily glow on a dim set of stairs going up to the right.

The Ghost returned to wherever he came from and we advanced up the stairs, weapons at the ready, with Alicia taking point, Lily in the middle, and me bringing up the rear. The stair way opened up into another room, one that looked to be a viewing room that sat directly across from a derelict reactor core.

Suddenly, with a screech, a dozen or so grey, faceless, skeletal aliens sprinted in from the right side of the room that housed the reactor core and, taking no notice of us, ran into the adjacent room where sounds of battle ensued.

"The Hive hasn't been on Earth in centuries, what are they doing here now?" Alicia's Ghost piped up.

"It doesn't matter, out target is in the next room and is probably what is engaging the Hive. If we move now, we can catch the Fallen off guard while they're dealing with the Hive." Alicia advised.

We all nodded before moving out of the now empty room that housed the reactor core and to the room that was alive with the sounds of battle. Inside the room was our target, an Elite squad of Fallen, fighting from a raised platform against the Hive. We took up positions around the room while the Fallen eliminated the rest of the Hive.

When the last Hive alien fell, Alicia let loose a round from her sniper rifle, the round punching through the head of one of the aliens, dropping him dead. That was our signal, the room was once again with the sounds of battle. Alicia was on top of a small control room that overlooked the entirety of the room while Lily and I were moving as a pair through the different cover's that the Fallen had set up, systematically eliminating them one by one.

The plan was to box them in the center of the room and then take them out all together. Lily and I would move in and try to push them into the center while Alicia sniped any Fallen that would out flank us.

However, Alicia missed one of the four armed aliens equipped with a pair of swords when he moved to flank against Lily. I immediately moved out of the cover that I was crouched behind and moved to counter flank the Fallen. I came around a large box only to see the alien a few feet away from me.

I raised my pistol and pulled the trigger. I was rewarded with a dry, taunting click from my side arm. The Fallen realized that my weapon was out of ammo and batted it out of my hand with one of his swords. I ducked under his next swing and charged into his midsection, wrapping my arm around him, and dragging him to the floor with me. We rolled a few times until I managed to come out on top of him. I bashed his head with my own helmeted head, putting him in a daze, giving enough time to remove my combat knife from its sheath on my collarbone and stab him in his unarmored throat, spraying me with his blood.

I rolled off of him and onto my feet and walked over to Lily and Alicia as they had finished up the fight with the rest of the Fallen.

"Thanks for the save." Lily said.

"No problem, was that the last of them?" I asked.

"Yep, where finished here. Ghost transmatt us back to the ships will ya." Alicia spoke.

"Certainly." Came the reply of Alicia's ghost before we were all enveloped in a white light.

Honestly, it felt kind of similar to when I activated the slip space bomb. Like my entire body was broken down into individual cells and then pieced back together one at a time until I was whole again.

When the blinding light died down, I was in Lily's ship again, and there she was right next to me. She walked over to the back of the ship where she had her "home away from home" set up and removed her helmet before throwing me a towel. I grabbed and caught it in midair before looking at her questionly.

She must have realized this so she spoke up, "It's for the blood, and it's all over you."

I took my helmet off and looked down at it. Sure enough, there it was. The aliens silver colored blood was all over the right side of my helmet and even on my chest plate. I guess I really did need a towel.

I started wiping off the blood from my armor, or what I could anyways; most of it was already dried or drying, making it incredibly difficult to be removed. After about five minutes of scrubbing at a stubborn pocket of blood that had locked itself in one of the recesses of my helmet, I finally gave up with an annoyed huff. Lily just let out a laugh at my struggling.

"Where on our way back to the Tower, you can finish cleaning up your armor later." She said.

Another five minutes passed until the Tower came into view and we came to a slow hover and eventual stop in the Tower's main hangar. We exited our ships, and headed up the flight of stairs that would take us up to the main level of the shipwright. When Amanda Holiday saw us, or more specifically me, she looked genuinely shocked when she saw that the top portion of my armor was decorated in Fallen blood. But that shock was quickly replaced with a smirk as she walked over to us.

"From the site of you guys, I would say that your mission was a success. Am I correct in assuming so?" She asked, her voice dripping smugness.

"You bet your ass it was, Six here save Lily and me twice and then again. He's proving one hell of a Guardian!" Alicia exclaimed.

"Well I guess a celebration is in order then, say the Bastion Saloon tonight at eight, drinks on me?" Amanda asked.

"We'll be there." Lily said before we walked out of the shipwright and into the Tower's main plaza.

As we walked across the plaza to the set of stairs that would take us down to the Vanguard War Room, I kept getting more stares from the other people only this time they were accompanied by whoops and congratulations. I guess showing up covered in Fallen blood is one way to impress people around here. Still, not being adept in social settings, I just kept my head down and followed Alicia and Lily down a set the stairs.

When we entered the Vanguard War Room we all stood in a line at attention before Cayde spoke up, " Relax, so was your mission a success or what?"

"It was." Lily replied.

"And how did our newest member do?" Zavala chimed in.

"He saved both me and Lily multiple times and took down the leader in CQC and obviously won." Alicia answered.

"Good work you three. Lily, there is a package for you waiting at the post master, Alicia Banshee's new shipment of sniper rifles is in stock now, and Six, if you're ready, we can install that new arm." Ikora Rey informed me.

I eagerly nodded in response.

"Good, take the elevator in shipwright down to the med level, someone will be there to take you into surgery." She spoke.

I nodded before walking all the way back up the stairs, through the plaza earning more whoops and stares, and finally I arrived at the shipwright where I took the elevator down to the med level.

When the doors opened, a small blonde woman with a clip board in hand stood ready to great me, but faltered in her greeting when she looked up to see a fully armored Spartan in the elevator.

"H-hello, are you Six?" She asked.

I gave a nod in reply.

"In that case follow me please." She stated while walking down the hallway and taking a left. After passing up a few doors, she directed me into one of the rooms.

"Please step inside and remove your armor and where the provided clothes. I'll be waiting right outside you need me. The surgeon will be in shortly." She spoke. Again, I only nodded in response.

I walked inside and she closed the door behind me. The inside of the room was sparsely furnished. There was a table pushed into the far corner of the room, a few surgical trays on wheel carts, and an operating table in the middle of the room with a light fixture hanging down from the ceiling just above it.

On the table was a bin labeled armor, and a pair of hospital pants lay folded next to it. I began to strip off my armor and place piece after piece in the bin until I was down to my gel layer. Stripping that off as well and placing it in the bin, I put on the hospital pants and waited for the surgeon.

After a few minutes of waiting, someone knocked on the door.

"Are you decent?" A male voice asked.

"Yes." Came my reply.

The door opened and in walked a gray haired man in a surgeons outfit, and in on hand he held the arm I was to be given. It was a matt black in color, so it wouldn't at least stand out from my armor, and besides being made of metal, it actually looked like a real arm.

"I'm doctor Kevin James, and I'll be performing your surgery today, Six. Tell me, do you know how where going to be going about this?" He asked.

I shook my head in response to the question.

"Well in that case, what where going to do is put you under with gas, after that we'll open up your shoulder and install a socket for the arm to attach to. The socket will be attached to your nerve endings in your shoulder that would normally lead to your arm. After that, it's as simple as installing the arm into the socket and then your good as new. The procedure shouldn't take more than an hour or two, after that you'll be free to leave. Any questions?" He asked.

"No doc, you pretty much answered all my questions."

"Well then, why don't you lay down on the table and we can get this thing underway."

I laid back on the table and the Doctor put a mask over my mouth and nose and before I knew it I was feeling really tired and then fell asleep. Hopefully when I wake up, I'll have a new arm and be ready for duty.

*Author"s notes*

Hello readers, DemonicalFox777 here with a few words as usual. I hope you enjoyed this chapter; I literally spent four hours or so, on the last 5,000 words, not that it's rushed; it's just that I don't usually do such long periods of typing. Anyways, Read and Review please, flame if necessary, and please point out any mistakes you see in the chapters so that I may go back and correct them and avoid making any mistakes in the future. A thank you goes out to everyone who has already reviewed or given me a paring suggestion. I'm still undecided on who I'm going to pick so if you guys want to, start putting in your reviews or PM's on who you want to see Six with. We already have suggestions for Eris, the Stranger, Lily, and Alicia. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and for those of you who may want another installment of _Spartan E-185_ , I have a chapter in the works, but I don't know when I will finish it. Until next time, this is DemonicalFox777 signing off.

*End Author's Notes*


	5. Chapter 5

*Author's Notes*

Hello everyone. I'm here with another instillation of Light from Another Place. Sorry for the long wait and stuff but now I'm back. I was on winter brake and stuff for a couple weeks and I had no motivation to do anything at all. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and commented and critiqued the previse chapters. Without any further delay here is the next chapter…

*End Author's Notes*

Three times now. Three times I have woken up in this strange new world that I find myself in. The first was when I awoke in the Cosmodrome and ended fighting for my life against droves of aliens in a reenactment of the Alamo. The second was when I was saved by Lily an Alicia of Fire Team Sundown. The third and latest time was when I was put under with gas to undergo an operation to replace my left arm, the one that I lost to the Covenant in orbit above Reach.

The surgery went off without a hitch, or so they tell me. I woke up a few hours after slipping into a gas induced sleep and the Doc made me to a few hand eye coordination tests and such. At first it was weird having an extremity that you can't feel but can move. It would definitely take me awhile to get used to it. The Doc told me that if I forgot that I had a left arm from time to time then it was perfectly normal, said it was natural for the brain to automatically ignore the prosthesis since it wasn't a flesh and blood limb.

I had given the Doc my thanks for helping me, telling him I owed him one. He just laughed and shook his head saying "You're fighting off the Darkness to save our sorry asses; the least I can do is patch you up when you need it." I nodded, offering a small smile as he left the room, and I began to replace my armor. I stripped off the hospital pants and slipped into the gel layer of the suit. God did it feel good to be back in the suit.

If a Spartan feels uncomfortable without their armor, then a Spartan really feels uncomfortable without their armor and only wearing a pair of hospital pants. I started placing plates and pieces in their proper places, only taking about five minutes. I had everything on and my suit was showing green lights across the board. My left arm was replaced with an advanced cybernetic prosthesis and my armor was repaired aside from the cosmetic damage. I was as combat ready as I ever was. Only problem was, was that I was fighting in a war that wasn't my own.

I stopped on my way out of the room and removed my helmet to look at myself in the full body mirror that hung on a wall to examine my appearance with the new arm. The arm itself blended in with my armor rather nicely. The matt black color matching my armor, and the occupation of the wearer was obviously taken into account when built as it was made with reinforced armor plating. Honestly, at a first glance, it looked almost exactly like my old arm when in the suit, so you probably wouldn't be able to tell that it was a replacement for the real thing if you didn't know what to look for. With a huff I replaced my helmet on my head, the internal clock telling me it was six 'o clock, and left the room after double checking that I had grabbed my weapons.

Ten minutes later I find myself trying to find Alicia and Lily after I had been cleared to leave the hospital wing of the Tower. Glancing around I found myself in one of the many hallways in the Tower. After leaving the hospital wing I tried to find my way back to the elevator that would lead me back up to the shipwright. However I must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong hallway. I tried to double back to the Hospital wing but I lost my way again and here I now stood in another set of hallways completely lost. It wasn't until five minutes later that the nurse from earlier had happened by that I relinquished my dignity and asked her for directions to the elevator that lead to the shipwright.

"Miss, can you direct me to the shipwright?" I asked.

She at first seemed startled to see me still in the Hospital wing but recovered quickly with a smile.

"Certainly, you'll want to take that hallway there all the way down until you reach a sign on your left that says stairwell. Take the hallway to the right and then take the two lefts and you should be there. Do you need anything else?" She asked still giving off her smile.

"No mam, thanks for the directions." I replied and started off at a light jog, my mission to find the elevator renewed.

After following the directions given to me, I finally found the elevator that would take me to the shipwright. I pressed the call button and the elevator doors dinged open, revealing the space to be void of passengers. I quickly stepped in, not wanting to spend any more time in the Hospital wing than I had to. Spartans weren't supposed to have their wounds tended to anyways, they were supposed to be impervious to bodily harm, and even if they do get wounded they tended to it themselves on their own time. And I am a Spartan…a Spartan who got lost and had to ask for directions.

The elevator dinged as it came to a stop and the doors slid open to reveal the noisy interior of the shipwright. Thank god, I finally made it out, that place was a maze. Maybe they did that so that patients couldn't try and escape before they were cleared to leave. Wouldn't surprise me.

I stepped out into the shipwright, the elevator doors closing behind me. Glancing around, I noticed a lack of a certain Chief Engineer. I was about to leave the shipwright and look for Alicia and Lily when I was called over by a man who was leaning against a stack of containers with a few others wearing civilian clothes. I, at first wanted to leave and look for Lily and Alicia, but then reconsidered. He might know where the two Exos are.

The man wore all black and grey clothing. He wore black pants and boots, his shirt was an oddly patterned mix of grey and black. And he wore a tattered ash colored cloth around his neck that draped over his shoulders a bit. His face was a grey pale blue mix that almost seemed to glow when you looked at it a certain angle. His hair was neatly kept and came down to his jaw line, also in black. I was starting to sense a pattern with this one.

When finally within conversational distance, he started off with, "Are you member of Dead Orbit?"

The question was simple enough I suppose, and the answer even simpler; no.

"No, what's Dead Orbit?" I asked. It sounded like a faction, but what kind of faction would call itself Dead Orbit.

"You dress like us, yet you do not know of us. How strange. Dead Orbit is an organization, a faction if you will, that wishes to help Humanity reclaim the stars. Do you wish to join and help our cause?" He asked in a monotone voice.

"No thank you. Um, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find Lily and Alicia of Fire Team Sun Down?" I must have sounded desperate because he gave me an apologetic look.

"Sadly I do not, they are not members of Dead Orbit so we don't keep tabs on their where abouts. If you want to find them, may I suggest talking to the vendors in the plaza, they would have a better idea on where to find them then I."

"Thank you, and good luck to your faction. It seems like a noble cause." With that I left the man and wandered my way outside. I first made my way over to Banshee, hoping to learn of my team's latest whereabouts.

"Hello Six, I see you have a replacement for your arm." Banshee started when he was me approach his stand.

"The Doctor didn't do too bad a job. Anyways, I need to restock my ammo." He nodded and produced two boxes of ammo from under the counter while I placed my weapons and clips on the table. I ejected the clip from the pistol first and began to load bullets into it, finding it much easier to do with two hands then one.

While idly loading the weapons I asked Banshee if he knew where Alicia and Lily where.

"Ya, they said something about meeting a friend at a bar out in the City, I think they called it 'The Inn of Light' or something; supposed to be a bar strictly for Guardians."

I nodded my thanks and replaced the clips in their respective guns, not chambering a round, and left for the Vanguard War Room. Lily and Alicia are somewhere down in the city at a bar. I can barely find my way out of the Hospital wing without having to ask for directions. Heading into the city blind would be a bad idea. However, if I could get a map of the City and the Tower's layout, then I could use my suit to plot a waypoint to the bar. After that, it's as simple as following the suit's directions.

I walked down the steps and past Shaxx, into the Vanguard War Room to see Zavala, Cayde, and Ikora sitting around the central table. Ikora was holding a conversation with her Ghost on something called the Void and understanding it. Zavala was looking down at a report, a scowl attached to his face. And Cayde seemed to be bored out of his mind, reclining in a chair with his feet up on the table, idly tossing his knife end over end into the air, despite his Ghost's insistent warnings about it being a safety hazard. However, once he saw me his interest seemed to peak a little.

"Hey Zavala, your new Titan is here AND with a new arm." He said putting extra emphiasis on the 'and'. I was beginning to think that he was the joker of this little group of commanders.

Zavala glanced up from his report and looked intently at my arm.

"I take it the surgery was a success. You seem to be fine at least." He said, pointing out the obvious.

I nodded.

"So what brings you here, do you need something?" He asked.

"Actually, I need to find Alicia and Lily, but they went some bar called the 'Inn of Light' to meet someone. I was wondering if I could have a map of the Tower and the City to find my way there." I asked.

"Did you say 'Inn of Light', I love that place. Tell you what, forget the map I'll personally take you there myself, eh?" Cayde said immediately after he sprang from his seat. I didn't have the option to answer as he just pulled me along out of the War Room before anyone could raise an objection.

Once outside he started to head for the shipwright elevator while still pulling me along.

"Thanks for showing me where this bar is." I stated once we were inside the elevator.

"It really should be me thanking you. You provided the perfect way to not ONLY get out of the accursed room but also have a viable excuse to go to one of the best bars in the City. So ya, I guess, thank you."

"I'm sorry sir?" I asked, I've never heard a superior officer act like that. The closest thing that I had seen was when Noble One had complemented my handy work after a one on one with an elite.

"Enough with that sir crap. Let me tell you something. I'm a Hunter, and Hunters hunt in the wild. We scout out hostile terrain and assassinate key targets deep in enemy territory. We don't belong in a War Room planning out attacks and missions. It goes against our nature, and I'm no different."

At this point the elevator doors opened to a motor pool of sorts, actually it was a motor pool that also doubled as a bus station for the Tower's occupants seeking a ride into the City.

"C'mon, we can catch a bus to the bar." Cayde said as he began to pull me along with him and onto a bus.

About ten minutes later the bus came to a stop in front of a colorful looking place. It was a two story building with neon lights lighting up the front of the building, most of it red. But a sign above the double set doors said in neon bubble lettering, 'Inn of Light'. This was the bar where I would supposedly find Alicia and Lily at. And it would be a challenge because it seemed really busy. There was a line of at least twenty people trying to get in past the bouncer but weren't successful. Even more people where waiting around chatting with each other waiting for the line to die down.

Cayde nudged me, forcing my attention away from the building and onto him.

"C'mon, this is our stop."

We departed the bus and where allowed inside since Cayde was a commander in the Vanguard. One of the few perks to the job he called it.

The bar was definitely colorful. There where neon lights all over the place, outlining the walls and bartender tables alike. All accented by low lighting. In the middle of the establishment was an inset dance floor; people where packed together dancing to some kind of techno music that was blaring through speakers set up around the room. And it wasn't just there, but there where people everywhere. The place was packed.

Cayde walked up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder in sympathy for my plight.

"We'll, good luck trying to find your friends in this mess." He said.

"You're not going to help me?"

"Nope, my job ended when we got inside. Good luck, you're going to need it." He shouted out over the music as he walked away and into the crowd. I lost track of him almost immediately.

Having never been in a bar before or had reason to up until now, I really didn't know where to begin looking for the two Exo's.

"I guess the bar's as good as any place to start looking." I muttered to myself, lowering my head and resigning myself to my fate of trying to find the two Exo's.

I started to push my way through the crowd towards what I hoped was the bar. After finally getting through the crowd, I was able to get a clear look at it and those who were sitting at it. It took me a moment but I finally managed to spot the tow of them. They were sitting on stools at the far end of the bar. They were talking to someone sitting in between them, another female at first glance.

As I walked closer I began to make out finer details about this person.

Whoever this was it was obviously a female if their feminine figure and neck length silver hair was anything to go by. While they did have their helmet off the rest of them was still garbed in an armor configuration similar to that of Alicia's; probably another Hunter.

I walked up behind them and grabbed their attention by tapping Lily on the shoulder.

"Yes?" Lily said while turning around to see who had tapped her on the shoulder. "Six, about time you showed up. We've been waiting for you for about an hour now." She said.

The other two turned to greet me when they had heard my name.

"Hey, how'd the operation go?" Alicia asked while taking a sip from her drink.

In response I held up my new arm and flexed my fingers around, showing that it was fully operational.

"No problems and a new arm. I'd say it went well." I said.

"Oh, nice. You managed to kill a Fallen elitist with only one arm, I wanna see what you can do with two arms."

I nodded.

"This is our friend Jaguar by the way." Alicia chimed in.

The lady with the silver hair swiveled around in her bar stool and reclined back against the bar. She definitely had a unique look to her. Silver hair adorned her head while a grey bandanna kept the lower half of her face from the nose down hidden from view. Her eyes were a grey blue color and from the expression on what parts of her face that weren't hidden, I'd say that she was smiling, or frowning, it was kind of hard to tell.

"Jaguar, that's unique." I said while raising an eyebrow even though they couldn't see it past my helmet.

"You're one to talk, Six." She responded.

"Fair enough."

After that an awkward silence reigned supreme for a couple of minutes, none of us knowing what to do at this point. Finally Lily broke the silence.

"Six, come have a drink, after all that you've been through you could probably use one."

I would have rejected the thought normally, Spartans weren't allowed to drink. Something about a super soldier going on a drunk rampage seemed like a bad idea; but she did have a point. I decided that one couldn't hurt and even if I did decline the offer, what the hell would I do. I sure as shit didn't know my way back to the Tower, and I doubt that Cayde would be so eager to show me the back after he finally got out of the War Room; that left me with standing around awkwardly while waiting for the others to finish their drinks. How does that saying go, if you can't beat them, join them. While not exactly true for a Spartan, it fit this situation.

With a shrug I removed my helmet and set it down on the table while taking a seat next to Alicia.

"So what's your poison?" Alicia asked.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know, what do you want to drink?" Lily chimed in.

"I've never drank before."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so. Bartender!" Lily called the bartender, another Exo, over.

"What'd ya need." He asked.

"My friend here need's a drink, and it's his first one." Lily kept up.

He nodded and grabbed a glass from under the counter and grabbed a glass. Turing around, he selected a, glass bottle with a blue label from one of the shelves that lined the wall and pored a small amount of the contents into the glass, filling only half way.

"Drink up buddy." He said while replacing the bottle cap.

"What is it?" I simply asked. Whatever it was, it was clear like water, but it wasn't.

"It's vodka. Strong stuff, but given your size, you should be alright."

"Should be?" I asked while raising an eyebrow. This time, without my helmet, they could see it.

He laughed at my question like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world…which it could have been for all I knew. I've never so much as had a whiff of alcohol.

"The worst thing that will happen to ya from one drink is you hate the stuff."

I decided to take his word for and grabbed the glass from the table and downed the contents in one gulp. And sadly to say, this 'vodka' did not go down easy nor did it taste very well. It left a tingly sensation on my tongue and a burning sensation in my throat, yet a warmth when it settled in my stomach. What the hell is this shit?

I started coughing from the sensations the liquid left while the others erupted into laughter. Guess it was funny to see a Spartan brought to his knees from a little drink; absurd yet funny.

"That is some nasty stuff! I've known MRE's to taste better!" I coughed out, still reeling from the effects of the drink.

"It's a bit of an acquired taste. Besides, you don't really drink it for the taste anyways. You drink it to get drunk." Jaguar explained while trying to hold back her own laughter through her scarf.

"And why would anyone do that?" I asked, completely shocked that anyone would drink such a foul liquid voluntarily.

"That's a good question; I'll get back to you when I have a good answer." She said while turning her attention back to her own drink.

I was still trying to get the horrible taste out of my mouth when Cayde pushed his way through the crowd to get to us.

"Fire Team Sundown, Commander Zavala needs you to…what's with Six?" He asked while giving me a funny look while I was trying to scratch the offended taste buds off my tongue.

"First time drinking, we started him off with a shot of vodka." Alicia chimed in.

"That's evil, and you know it. Anyways, Zavala needs you to report in for mission assignment. Something about a large scale Fallen mobilization in the area." He explained.

I immediately stopped making a fool of myself and went into mission mode.

"Alright, we'll head over to the Tower. What about you Jaguar? You want to tag along?" Alicia asked.

"Why not, beets drinking alone, so ya; I'm in." She said whilst standing up and grabbing her helmet.

"Alright then, let's go." Lily said while jogging out of the bar, the others following suit.

I grabbed my helmet and shot a dirty look at the little glass that had the vodka before I jogged after the others.

Once outside we were able to catch a ride on one of the busses. The driver had been really nice about taking us strait to the Tower. Usually they would run a set route and there were a few stops in between the bar and the Tower. When I asked him about it he said that it wasn't uncommon for Guardians to need a trip strait to the Tower, and when the drivers had to make a special trip over there like this they got paid extra for 'civic duty' or something.

We took the elevator all the way to the top of the Tower. No one said a word the entire way up.

We were either not in the mood for talking or were thinking about the mission.

The elevator doors dinged open and we stepped out into the shipwright. Even at late in the evening, it seemed like the Tower was still as busy as it was in the day. They must have Fire Teams alternate day and night missions. Makes for an effective war strategy as long as you don't run your people into the ground with constant work.

We half jogged half ran over to the Vanguard War Room taking the steps two at a time, or in my case three. When we entered the War Room, we were treated the sight of Ikora in a deep argument with Zavala over something or another.  
"I don't care what it takes; we can't let the Fallen mobilize; a force that size will stand a significant threat to the City." Zavala growled out.

"But we do not have enogh Guardians to take on that force in a stand up gunfight." Ikora retorted.

"Well we have to do something and I don't think waiting is the smart thing to do."

Jaguar broke up the argument with a clearing of her throat. The two commanders looked over in our direction. Upon seeing us, Ikora waved us over.

"Good, you are here." She said as we approached.

"What's the mission?" Alicia asked.

"The mission has yet to be decided, but once we find a solution to this problem, we'll need your team to move out immediately." Zavala spoke.

"And what's this problem?" Jaguar asked.

"This."

With that one word, the inset object in the middle of the table projected an image a few inches off the table's surface. The image in question was somewhere in the Cosmodrome. It looked like it was outside the wall that spanned the interior of the Cosmodrome. There were wrecked and rusted cars all piled up in an ancient traffic jam, all trying to force their way into what looked like a sealed up entrance to a parking garage. Beyond the cars, was what was really interesting. A large open plain of sorts was in a flurry of activity. Fallen teams and variations of the species were everywhere, anding craft were flying in and dropping off infantry as well as vehicles of varying sizes and even a couple of these giant ball things that floated off the ground by a couple of feet.

"This is a live image of outside the Cosmodrome. The Fallen are mobilizing for something big. They've got hundreds elite teams, walker tanks, pikes, and skiffs crawling all over the area. We don't know what they're doing, but we assume that they're going to try and make another push against the City." Zavala explained.

"Wait, I thought that the Fallen were defeated in the Battle of The Twilight Gap. They shouldn't even have the resources to make an army of half that size. What house is it?" Alicia chimed in.

"That's just it, we don't know. This out of this entire amassing of Fallen and not one House marking. We think that this may be a conglomeration of Fallen that were exiled from the other Fallen Houses. As to how they got this amount of equipment, your guess is as good as mine." Zavala explained.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Lily spoke up.

"We haven't decided that yet. Zavala wants to lead a pre-emptive attack against them with everything we've got. I feel that we should wait for a more opportune time to strike." Ikora said.

"What more opportunity could you ask for? They don't have their army organized and on the ground yet, we have the element of surprise, and we can hit them with artillery from the City's defenses before they can even get inside the wall." Zavala explained.

I stepped up and leaned over the map, and after a few seconds to double check things, spoke up.

"I might have a suggestion."

"Go ahead Six." Ikora spoke.

"They don't know were coming and their not organized yet. Zavala's right, we won't have a more opportune time to attack then now."

Zavala gave a nod in appreciation.

"But going in guns blazing will only get us killed. While not at full force yet, that's still a lot of firepower, and it probably won't take long to get it trained on us; however, what if we send in a small team, to say, sabotage key weapons and equipment before the main attack. If successful, then they'll take longer to get organized and they'll be out a couple of their bigger toys." I finished.

"That might just work." Ikora spoke.

"Alright, Fire Team Sundown, your mission is to infiltrate the enemy encampment and place explosives on key targets, you have to move fast if we want to eliminate the threat before it gets bigger. Pick your targets carefully, you'll need to move fast, but you'll only have a set amount of explosives. Identify and eliminate targets at your own discretion; just be quiet about it, if they find out your there before we attack, this mission will be over even before it begins." Zavala briefed us.

"Talk to Shaxx for the explosives and the get yourselves mission ready. You'll deploy as soon as you're ready. Get out to the target area, set the explosives, but don't blow them until I give the signal to. Good luck." Zavala said as we turned around and went up the way we came down.

We stopped over at Shaxx's set up; he was busy tinkering with a gun when we stopped in front of him.

"Hello, what brings you hear; finally joining in on the Crucible?" He asked.

"No, we need to get some explosives for our mission." Alicia explained.

"I'll need Zavala to authorize…Give them the dam explosives!" Yelled out Zavala from the War Room, interrupting Shaxx.

"Right then, give me a moment." Shaxx said while he tapped a few times on his terminal.

"Okay, the explosives are ready for you, but since we can't have Guardians running around the City with high explosives, they'll be waiting for you in the shipwright when you're ready to leave. Good luck on your mission."

"Thanks Shaxx." Replied Lily.

We left the room and went up the steps to the top of the Tower.

"Me and Alicia still need to run back to our room and grab our weapons, what about you?" Alicia asked Jaguar. I still had my weapons 'strapped' to my person, fully loaded and mission ready.

"I'm good, I have a spare load out on my ship." She replied.

"Okay, take Six and head out for the usual transmatt zone. We'll meet you there." Alicia said.

With that we all headed to the shipwright, Alicia and Lily taking the elevator down while Jaguar and I grabbed the explosives from one of the Tower's requisition robots, and headed out for her ship, and by extension the Cosmodrome.

*Author's notes*

Hello faithful readers and people who thought that I wasn't updating this anymore. (No one actually said that, but I did have someone actually ask me if I was still alive) Sorry for the extremely long wait for an update, I don't have an excuse for you guys; I never do. I respect fanfiction to much for that. But seriously, sorry about that. On a better note, this fic has gained some extremely high popularity, not really when you compare it to some of the other ones out there, but it's still big for me. I also got an OC from OpticSniper(sorry if I butcher the name) Thank you. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long as you did for the next chapter. Anyways, Read and Review(flame if you want) and submit and OC if you want, also please vote for who the paring should be for Six, or tell me that he shouldn't be paired with someone if you want. I don't have anything final yet but I do have a couple of suggestions. If you have found some of the information in this chapter of other chapters let me KNOW. I hate myself when I use wrong information for stuff like this. Please let me know. I stopped playing the Destiny game a few months after Oryx came out so I probably won't do anything past that point in the story line. Demonicalfox777 signing off…s


	6. Chapter 6

*Author's notes* (For those with an OC idea)

Just a quick little note. If you submit an OC bio, please have a complete list of weapons. That includes one primary, secondary, heavy. (Please try and keep it realistic. Nothing that's overpowered or ridiculous, please. If you submit a bio with an incomplete list of weapons I will default them to the following:

Primary: Assault Rifle

Secondary: Side Arm

Heavy: LMG

Also note that the OC cap for this fic will be limited to 6. Anymore and it will be hard to keep track of. Thank you for your time and continued reading in this fic.

*End Author's Notes*

Silence.

Awkward silence was the only thing that was mutually felt in the small compartment of the Starfighter. Though not outwardly spoken, it was painfully obvious that both occupants were uncomfortable.

Looking over, I could see that Jaguar was shifting around in her seat and meticulously checking over her weapon load out that she had retrieved from a compartment in the back. She would even steal a glance in my direction occasionally, though this did not go unnoticed. As for me, I had already checked over my weapons twice before and was now examining my new arm curiously, desperate for any sort of distraction. I may have hidden it well, but I was just as uncomfortable as the mysterious lady next to me.

She struck me as something familiar. It was her personality. She seemed to have one of those "take no shit from no one" attitudes. Yet I suspect that there may be a softer side to her that only a select few know of. I could respect that. Spartans simulate similar behavior to almost anybody; serious to everyone and friendly to each other.

She didn't say a single word in our seemingly endless trip to the Cosmodrome. When the ship hovered to a stop over our pre-arranged rendezvous point she all but jumped from her seat and sprinted out the hatch.

I sighed once and followed after the mysterious woman.

The rendezvous point was rather open. A desolate hilltop and dotted with a few shrubs and rock faces jutting out here and there. A perfect kill box for a sniper, but a poor choice for a rendezvous point. However, a quick scan of the area turned up no immediate threats within the AO.

(Area of Operation)

"Six to Alicia, over." I spoke into my helmet's com unit.

"I read you, over." Her response came.

"We've reached the rendezvous point, what's your status, over?"

"We're a few minutes out. Listen, the plan's changed a little bit, over."

A change in plans? Another complication, perhaps the Fallen started to advance or maybe they set up a secondary landing zone.

"What's the change, over?"

"Zavala wants us to link up with one of his advanced scouts in the area. He's apparently the one who found the Fallen op. We talk more once we regroup, over."

"Roger that, over and out."

I turned off the radio and walked over to Jaguar, who had started to drag the charges out of her ship.

I grabbed one of the charges from the compartment and helped with the process of unloading them. There were eight in total, each weighing a good amount. They were rectangular in shape, about a foot long and about six inches wide. They honestly looked like a door breaching charge, however I was assured that they would be significantly more powerful.

"So what's the word?" Jaguar inquired.

"Few minutes out from rendezvous…and we have to link up with an advanced scout."

"Why?"

"Didn't say." I said as dragged out the last of the charges.

A few minutes later, a dull roar accompanied their teammate's ships as they approached.

With a roar, the engines on Lily and Alicia's ships flared to a stop as they set down and their respective occupants exited. They both were donning their respective armor and weapon load outs. When they cleared a safe distance from their ships, the engines flared to life again and they took off seemingly on their own, going up and up until even with the help of my helmet's enhanced vision I lost sight of them.

"Why'd your ships leave?" I asked, straightening out from my hunched over position overlooking the charges.

"It's standard protocol for a Guardian's ship to retreat to a safe distance in low planetary orbit after a successful mission deployment. It ensures that a Guardian doesn't find themselves stranded." Lily explained.

Made sense to me; there were many an occasion in which a squad of marines died because their evac ride was shot down. Not sure if the orbit feature would have been all that helpful though, the covenant did stage their invasions from space after all.

"Well now that we're all here, we can get this show on the road, so to speak. I've got the charges primed and ready to go. We should link up with this scout and try and come up with some sort of plan." Jaguar explained while standing up and dusting herself off.

"Agreed, where on the clock so we should finish up here ASAP and rendezvous with the scout." Alicia stated.

We divided up the eight charges evenly, two apiece. Alicia, Lily, and Jaguar had a sort of duffle bag for the charges where as I clipped my two charges to the magnetic clamps located on the small of my back and upholstered my scout rifle, cocking back the receiver and chambering a round into the now live weapon; the others followed suit. And with the charges transport ready and weapons loaded, we set out across the open field of the Cosmodrome.

Apparently this scout was to meet us at the entrance of the Cosmodrome's wall. From there we would pool our resources and his Intel to hopefully come up with some sort of viable plan. Or at least that was the general conciseness of the group. In truth, we really didn't have a plan, there wasn't enough time to come up with one. In the span of maybe three or four hours I woke up from surgery after getting a new arm installed, was forced into going to a bar to find my team, had my first drink at the expense of my dignity, and was now being thrown into this pre-emptive cluster fuck, it was definitely shaping up to be one of those , who ever this guy was, had some good Intel that we could use, otherwise we would practically be flying blind on this one.

We were coming up on some sort of structure and like the others, a victim of time. The metal was rusted away into a dirty red color, the concrete crumbling away in large portions leaving entire rooms exposed to the elements, and to top it all off, the roof was cave in and in some places nonexistent.

Lily must have noticed my curiosity somehow with my helmet on as she started to explain the building to me.

"This is Dock Thirteen, we go through here and then cross the divide to the Breach. The scout should meet us there."

I gave a nod in understanding, and then followed the others into the building. Jaguar was taking the point with Alicia and Lily in the middle, and finally me bringing up the rear, covering our six with my rifle at the ready, occasionally sparring a glance at my motion tracker to make sure that the line was still moving behind me.

We were moving at a relatively quick pace, almost a sort of jog, if a jog was when you had a rifle shouldered and were hunched over while running. We didn't have the luxury of taking our time. We had to meet up with this scout, come up with a plan, execute the plan, and then join in on the main assault when Zavala gave the word. Easier said than done.

Within ten minutes, and no hostiles detected, we were clear of the building and moving out into an open area that could only be the 'Divide' that Lily had mentioned earlier.

It was nothing but a glorified kill box. On our right, another building, this one a two story and still relatively intact, and next to that was a dammed up river. To our left was one of the Cosmodrome's inner walls, this one running strait ahead of us before curving right and then going straight ahead again, forming the left side of the kill box. And a similar wall, the City's outer wall, was running parallel to it on the far right. The only other thing of note were a few buildings that lined the back wall, other than that, it was nothing but open fields. This was definitely any ambusher's dreams come true, but of course that was probably the intention behind the layout. If the enemy breached the first wall, then they would walk strait into a series of kill zones, making it that much harder to lay siege to the City.

We took an immediate right as soon as we exited the building and picking up the pace, crossed the dam within a minute or two. Once we were across the dam we took refuge inside of a vehicle shed or sorts, catching our breath before crossing the final stretch of open ground to the breach.

We still haven't encountered any hostiles. Something big was definitely going on. If these unknown Fallen that were about to attempt a full-fledged siege against the City were of the same race as the ones that we faced off against in my first mission than who's to say that they aren't teaming up against the City. The only other explanation for the lack of hostile contacts was they got wind of the big assault and bugged out before they got caught in the middle.

Either one seemed as probable as the other, but at the moment it doesn't matter. For now, all that matters is repelling the assault against the City, and our role was to soften up the enemy opposition before the main force rolled in for the kill.

After another minute or so of watching and catching our breath, it was determined that the final stretch like all the others before, was clear of hostiles. If the others noticed the lack of contacts then they kept it to themselves, probably trying not to break the silence to state the obvious. These were definitely seasoned members of the Vanguard, showing discipline and attentiveness for detail that only came with years of experience.

We printed out of the vehicle shed in a single file line; Jaguar first, then Lily, Alicia, and finally me. Once cross the open area and into the enclose space of the City's outer wall did we finally break the silence.

"So does anyone know who this scout is or where exactly we can find him?" Jaguar asked.

No one spoke up, offering only a shrug in response.

"Zavala never said, in fact the only thing he said was to meet up with a scout in the Breach at this area." Lily spoke up. Alicia backed up her claim with a nod.

"Well I don't see him anywhere so we should probably move on with the mission." Jaguar said.

We all consented and without another word moved on with weapons at the ready. The entrance into the Breach took us through something that resembled a service tunnel of sorts. The tunnel itself was wide enough to walk two by two except in my case. So with Jaguar up front, Alicia and Lily in the middle, and me bringing up the rear once again, we made it through the tunnel at a reasonable pace.

The tunnel didn't go on for long. After taking a few turns here and there, it emptied out into a sort of manmade chasm. We must have been right in the middle of the wall since massive walls spanned for miles in either direction and came to a point at the top to form a sort of ceiling. Directly in from of us was a rusted gantry way that crossed the pitch black canyon that followed the wall's length.

"Should we take a minute to look around for the scout?" Lily asked.

I was about to offer my input, but before I could, I was cut off by a loud bang, followed by another two in rapid succession. With the final bang's echo dissipating inside the metal structure of the wall, something fell from the supports above and nearly landed on Jaguar had she not moved towards cover at the sound of gunfire.

We all had our weapons as the ready, looking in any of the direction for the location of the shooter, no one daring to turn their backs to a potential hostile to check the corpse.

"Anybody got eyes on that shot!?" Jaguar shouted out.

"Negative, no eyes." I shouted back, checking my motion tracker for any signs of the shooter.

If the shooter hadn't taken another shot by this point then whoever it was had probably fled by now. I kept my guard up but turned around to examine the corpse that had fallen from the support beams, however the darkness of the Breach made it difficult to recognize it at a first glance.

I dropped down to one knee and tried looking over the body up close, but the darkness still proved too thick. I set my rifle down on the ground and grabbed for my side arm. Bringing it to bear, I toggled on the under mount flashlight and the white light pierced the darkness. I shined it down onto the corpse, revealing a black cape attached to and concealing the corpse's identity. Intrigued, I reached out and brushed away part of the cape revealing a three fingered hand.

I quickly rolled over the corpse to reveal a Fallen Vandal, which means that whoever shot him was against the Fallen. And there was only one person that could have done such a thing and was supposed to be out here, our mysterious scout.

"Hang on a sec, this is a Vandal, hold your fire!" I called out while standing up with my weapons.

At my announcement, the others glanced back at me and then at the corpse that I still had my light trained on. A second later they realized the implication behind my discovery and lowered their weapons yet didn't completely put them away either, just in case it turns out I was wrong.

"This is Fire Team Sundown, identify yourself!" Jaguar called out.

"Titan, Advanced Scout, Reagan." Came out a reply from the darkness, echoing off the metal supports and into nothingness.

Following the reply, a man of substantial stature emerged from behind one of the support pillars at the end of the gantry way with a large, smoking revolver in hand. He waved us over to him without another word.

We all looked at each other, our expressions hidden behind the helmets, shrugged and moved forward across the gantry way, all except me. While the others crossed over I eyed the gantry way with apprehension. When a Spartan was outfitted with their armor, they roughly weighed half a ton, and while I have no doubt that this walkway could hold me under normal circumstances, these were not normal circumstances. This walkway was rusted out and nearly falling apart. I honestly was not about to die in another dimension just because a rusted out gantry way couldn't hold my weight.

The others seemed to notice my absence about halfway across because they came to a stop and looked back at me.

"Hey Six, what's wrong?" Jaguar called out.

"It's the walk way, I don't think it can hold my weight." I yelled back.

They must have finally taken notice of the condition of the walkway as they looked down at it.

"Hang on; we'll come up with something." Lily called out.

I shook my head.

"There's no time for that. Look, I'll double back and look for another way across and we can regroup. Meanwhile, you'll need to come up with a plan. Radio me when you have something."

"Alright, just be careful. We'll contact you when we have a plan." Jaguar chimed in.

Without another word, they turned their backs to me and advanced further into the tunnels.

I sighed at my predicament. One of the most advanced units in the UNSC, a Spartan III-no the Spartan III. Spartan B-312, rank of Lieutenant, one of the only two Spartans to ever achieve the ranking of Hyper Lethal Vector, was stopped in his tracks by a rusted out walk way, oh the humility.

Looking around, I noticed that there were similar walkways spanning the chasm in various places. Some of them even appeared to be in better condition than the one in front of me. The one that caught my eye however was about two floors above me and off to the right. It appeared to be remarkably untouched by time. Now I just need to find my way up to it and then I could cross over.

Glancing around, I noticed to my immediate right was an old, rusted door, bared with a slab of metal welded across it. This might have been an entrance to a stairwell, and if it was then that made my job that much easier.

I tried the door's handle, only to be met with resistance and the groaning protest of the rusted metal. I offered another sigh in response to the door's stubbornness; looks like we're going to half to do things the hard way.

I took a step back, and then I launched my armored foot at the door. The door gave away easily; in fact it flew into the dark room, right off its rusted hinges. I grasped my side arm from my thigh plate and thumbed on the flashlight once again. The light spewed forth and pierced the blackness illuminating the next room to indeed be a stairwell.

Concrete staircases led to both the lower and upper levels. I would only need to go up a couple of flights to reach the catwalk, or that's what it looked like from down here; either way, I needed to go up and they say that there's no time like the present. With my pistol at the ready, its light illuminating the way, I started up the first flight at a relatively light jog. No reason to rush things, the others would need time to come up with a feasible plan.

 **POV SWITCH: LILY**

 **(AN: I will try to avoid doing this as much as possible in the future. I will not be doing this with submitted OC's unless asked to or under specific circumstances within the story. I don't want to muck up somebody else's OC by doing a POV wrong. Like I said, if you want a POV for a character, PM me or leave it in a review. Thank you.)**

I was worried. Yes, definitely worried. That was the easy thing to figure out. The harder things weren't so simple, but then they wouldn't be hard, now would they? One of the harder things was what I was worried about; I can't seem to figure out what specifically. I was worried for Six. When a team mate gets separated from the team the odds generally aren't in their favor. Sure he could handle himself, that was a given, but I couldn't help but worry for him. I was worried about this entire op that was for sure. I mean, who wouldn't be; an army of Fallen show up, right outside the City undetected, and set up a staging ground. The only reason we even knew about them was because of people like Reagan here, and that was because they decided to stick their heads out a window every once in awhile instead of relying on scanners so much. Sometimes the old ways are still around because they work.

I suppose a congratulatory celebration is in order, if we live through this that is, to thank Reagan for his discovery. Ah yes, Reagan. He and I go way back, or I guess I should say all three of us go way back. Reagan was kind enough to show us the ropes when we first came to the City. He himself wasn't even a Guardian for more than a few months, but still, a few months of experience can be the differential factor of living and dying.

We started to work together after awhile. He said something along the lines of "us rookies got to stick together" or something like that; god it's been so long. Reagan was something like the unofficial leader of our little trio. We started off small, taking on small bounties and the like, but with time and experience, eventually we started to take on the odd jobs that the more experienced Guardians considered low priority. And all the while, as we became more experienced we became closer as a sort of family of misfits.

Eventually, people started to talk about us. Just the occasional chatter here and there or the occasional good job on a well done assignment, stuff like that; and given time, with their gossip their respect. We started getting offers for some of the bigger contracts and missions. We were moving up and it felt great. But when the rumors and gossip about us reached the heads of the Vanguard, that's when things went downhill, but not in a tragic way or anything, not really anyways.

They had heard that there was this new and seemingly invincible team moving up the ranks. They kept hearing these things, these rumors and whispers of this team; and so one day they decided to do a little research on these rumors. Their research led them to us. They sent word to us that they wanted us to report the Vanguard War Room. When a lower class team of Guardians gets called up to the Vanguard War Room, it usually entails a big promotion or a reward for a job well done. It goes without saying that it doesn't happen very often and naturally we thought we were getting a promotion or something.

When we got there, we were inspected and asked questions on various tactics and such. Very quickly this stopped looking like a promotion and more like a test of sorts, but a test for what; now that was the million dollar question.

After an hour of inspecting and questioning and other things, they asked to take a test of sorts. When asked they said it was to prove ourselves, but they never said prove ourselves for what. We were sent out into the field, given one task to complete, kill the leading officer of one of the Fallen outpost in the Cosmodrone.

We took this to be an easy test, and it was for someone who didn't know what they were being tested for. We completed the assignment without any complications and were reporting back at the Tower within a few hours of deployment.

The heads of the Vanguard were extremely pleased with our handy work, more specifically Reagan's, saying that he displayed proficient leadership skills and excellent combat prowess when in the field, said that it was rare for someone to display these qualities so quickly after joining the Vanguard. Then they did something that we didn't see coming. They offered him a promotion into the ranks of the Advanced Vanguard Scouts. Don't get the wrong idea, it's a huge promotion, but the AVS operates solo in the field. If accepted then our team would be a man short and the Rules of the Vanguard state that if you want to take on the higher up missions you need to have a team of at least three to prevent friendly casualties.

He would have turned down the promotion; he was always like that, putting the team first. But we encouraged him to take the promotion. Otherwise we would have felt like we were holding him back. So he accepted, became an operative of the AVS's and Alicia and I were forced to start taking the lower level jobs again. Despite being happy for him, we couldn't help but feel like our careers had come full circle, right back to square one. We kept at it for a while, and eventually got over that feeling, even started to take the smaller jobs just to assist the newer Guardians, showing them the ropes just like Reagan did for us. And one day, a little over a year later, the Vanguard contacted us again, said that we had to report for an assignment; that was the assignment that we found Six on. The rest you should know.

Speaking of Six, we should probably hurry up; don't want him to find us before come up with a plan. I'm not too sure he would appreciate waiting on us after having to find a way across that gap and then trying to regroup with us, especially after telling us to come up with a plan while he's gone.

 **AN:**

 **And that's a rap for this chapter. Sorry for the long wait. I was having a serious case of the writer's block and while I could have finished this chapter while I had the block, I would have probably shoveled out utter crap. Better to wait for the quality stuff I suppose. This chapter is on the shorter side of what I usually do, sorry but this has been long overdue and it's a good stopping point. As always read and review, flames are welcome and there is still an open spot for an OC submission. Just follow the guidelines at the top of the chapter and so on. One more thing let me know what you think of this Reagan character. I know that there wasn't really a whole lot with him in it, but I didn't intentionally do this. I did do a bit of a back-story for him and how he knows Alicia and Lily. If you like this or want this for you own OC say something. This is the first time I've done a back-story for someone else's OC. I was always afraid of doing something wrong with a character that wasn't mine. Hopefully I did a good job with this one. The next chapter, I can promise you will not be up for a while. Fallout 4 comes out with its first DLC and Doom 4 is set to come out in less than a month so chances of distractions are very high, but I do check my email for PM's and stuff regularly so don't hold out on contacting me. Thanks for reading and leave a review or PM me or flame if you feel like it was necessarily. I know I took a lot of liberties with this chapter but hopefully I didn't do too bad of a job.**


	7. Chapter 7

* **Author's Notes***

 **Hello everybody, DemonicalFox here with another chapter for this beloved fic. (It is actually kind of popular apparently. Didn't really expect that) Sorry for the long wait but there was fair warning at the bottom of chapter six. Just a heads up for anyone who wanted to submit an OC: The OC roster is full. The team cap was set at six per the standard for the actually Destiny game. Any more than that and I might mix up the character's personalities or something. If you still want to see your character in this story I might have them assisting the main characters or something, nothing too big. But I was thinking about doing a spin-off from this at a later point. If you still want to see your OC used for something than that would your best bet. Right now the current OC roster list stands with the following OC's and one halo character. (All rights reserved for whoever made the character Noble Six)**

 **Fire Team Sundown:**

 **Noble Six (Spartan III of the UNSC)**

 **Lily (Exo "sister" to Alicia and OC of DemonicalFox777)**

 **Alicia (Exo "sister" to Lily and OC of DemonicalFox777)**

 **Jaguar (Human hunter and OC of OpticSniper)**

 **Luke Reagan (Human Titan and OC of TheDemonFurry)**

 **Fredrick (Human Titan and OC to Freddy0502)**

 **A special thanks to those that submitted an OC.**

 **On with the story…**

 ***End Author's Notes***

I'm going to be completely honest with myself here; this is definitely a low point. At first things were going fine aside from having to separate from the rest of the team. I quickly found what appeared to be easy access to the floors above via a sealed off stairwell. It never crossed my mind that the stairwell was in fact sealed off for a reason. That very reason happened to be right in front of me or at least above me for about another thirty feet. The concrete stairwell was intact for the first few flights up however it very quickly gave way to crumbly bits of concrete with rebar being the only thing giving a hint to what used to be there in its place. I managed to slowly work my way up the stairways without too much trouble other than the occasional "too close to falling through the floor moment". However all that effort was for naught it seems? Fate was having a field day with just fucking with me it seems.

First the business on Reach, then the shit storm that was the boarding of the covenant ship above Reach. After that was the whole mess of waking up in the Comsodrome with only three limbs to speak of. Undergoing a surgery for robotic prostheses and then ending up on this suicide op that I had suggested myself. Being separated from my team and now finally this. After climbing up a decaying stairwell for about ten minutes only to be met with a lack of said decaying stairwell for about thirty feet up. Yep, fate is having a hell of a field day or actually it's more like a field month, all things considered.

I sighed in defeat, giving up the hope I held for an easy way to regroup with my team. I was going to have to do this the hard way. I put my pistol back in its respective place and unsung my rifle from my back. I pulled back the cocking mechanism and chambered a round. The wall across directly in from of me, nearly seven feet away, was the most intact wall meaning that it was my best bet for what I was about to do. I took aim with my rifle and fired the first round into the wall at about head height. The round impacted with the wall with a resounding bang that echoed in the stairwell. I waited a few seconds, observing my handy work before beginning to take aim again. Before I could fire the second round my helmet crackled to life.

"Six, what's going on? We heard gunfire." Jaguar's voice came over the radio.

"It's nothing to worry about, focus on coming up with a plan."

"Okay, speaking of which we might have something in the works. We'll go over the details when we regroup.

"Understood, Six out."

Now with that out of the way I could focus on the task at hand. I took aim once more with my rifle and fired away at the wall, only this time three feet above the first one. I repeated this process until I had holes spanning the wall for about thirty feet up and half a mag left. I swapped out the half spent mag for a fresh one before replacing the rifle on my back. I took a few steps back before sprinting towards the end to the concrete and leaping over the seven foot gap only to collide full force into the wall with my right hand embedded into the bullet hole in the wall.

Time to see if this new arm was actually worth all the trouble and hopefully it wouldn't give out on me because my body weight exceeded the arms capacity. I hauled myself up a little and placed my left hand firmly into the next hole and slowly let go of the previous hole. My arm held without any problems or signs of strain, seems this thing is quality stuff. I pulled myself up to the next one and placed my foot in the first hole. First rule of free climbing, always keep to points of contact with the wall. While I could fall without risk of injury or such it would be a setback that I couldn't afford right now. I had places to be, stuff to blow, and an invasion force to repel.

I continued like that; hand over hand, until after ten minutes of climbing I reached the last hole in the wall and was thirty feet up in a dark stairwell. Looking directly behind myself I was met with the relieving sight of stable ground. An outcropping of concrete of about six inches hung in the doorway that led to my desired gantry way and only seven feet of empty space stood between me and it. I hauled myself up with my left hand until my legs were between me and the wall and bent at the knees. I was going to have to jump from the wall over the gap and to the outcropping seven feet away and pushing off the wall would in theory aide in my temporary flight across. I tensed myself up in anticipation for the upcoming exertion and a split second later I let go of the wall and gave a mighty push off the wall, leaving two boot sized imprints in my place. For a few seconds I felt weightlessness and then that was immediately followed by the feeling of freefall. By this point I had already crossed four feet of the seven foot gap and was now reaching out another two with my arms. Maybe I should have climbed farther up before I jumped because this is cutting it a bit close. I managed to grab onto the outcropping just barely with my arms and then the rest of my body decided to collide with the rest of the wall.

After a brief period of catching my breath I hauled myself up from the ledge and got to my feet. Looking back down into the stairwell led me to the unanimous decision to never climb up a stairwell like that again. I looked around myself and was met with total darkness. I grabbed my pistol from its place on my thigh and thumbed the under barrel light on. Bright light sprang forth from the device and this time with the aid of the flashlight I was able to take note of my surrounding.

I was at the beginnings of the mostly intact gantry way that I had spied from a few floors down. That was good. Now all I had to do was cross over and find a way to link up with my team; simple enough. I brought my pistol to bear, both for the light and because this was hostile territory. The walkway led across the mad made canyon a full forty feet before abruptly stopping at the foot of a heavily rusted door. I wasn't even going to give the thing the benefit of the doubt and forwent the handle and just kicked it. The door caved inwards, swinging on its rusted hinges with the sound of a whaling banshee and a newly placed boot print to go with. I'm definitely not the most subtle of people, maybe a Spartan, but definitely not people.

As soon as the door swung in I brought my pistol to bear again, its light lancing through the darkness and illumination a room that strongly resembled an artillery bunker. Gigantic shells littered the floor, both spent and unspent alike, and there was an empty weapon locker on the wall that housed the doorway in which I was standing. Apparently this wall had defense system that have long since been abandoned to the mercy of time if the amount of rust that covered the giant weapon in the middle of the room was any indication. However, besides the ancient piece of weaponry, there was something else that caught my eye. The far wall, the one the artillery piece was facing, was rusted and had handle bars welded to it. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together to come to the conclusion that the wall was movable.

I approached the metal wall and grabbed one of the handle pieces that was completely rusted and gave a small pull. The wall moved a little, creating a small gap between itself and the left side wall of the room. Curious as to what I might see outside I poked my head through the gap. Down below was the Fallen staging ground. Off the right was a vehicle motor pool of sorts with strange walker tanks and what looked to be the Fallen's version of a ghost. To the left were entire platoons of Fallen soldier getting armed and organized for the upcoming invasion. And right below me were ships were airlifting supplies and troops into the area at a sort of drop off point. This was definitely an optimal point for scouting out the enemy. High enough up that one wouldn't likely be spotted but still low enough to be able to accurately observe.

I pulled my head back from the opening and turned my com on.

"Six here, I've crossed over approximately two floors above you."

"That's great; can you find your way down to us?" Alicia replied.

"Negative, I'm in some kind of artillery bunker without any other way out. But I have an optimal point to observe the Fallen staging grounds and there's unexploded ordinance in here."

"Understood. How good a shot are you Six?" Alicia inquired, curiositys lacing her voice over the coms.

"I can handle myself, why?"

"My ghost will take my rifle to you. You'll provide over watch with Reagan while Lily and I place the explosives. You should put you charges on that ordinance and dump it over the wall when we detonate ours."

"Solid copy, transmitting my coordinates to you."

A small pause and then an odd electronic sound.

"Alright, my ghost is on his way to you now, ETA three minutes."

"Understood, I'll be ready on your mark, Six out."

All that was left to do now was to prep the explosives and wait for the Tower to give the go ahead to start the bombings; I hate waiting. Spartans always hated waiting. We were taught from day one to go on the offensive. They say patience is a virtue and it's not wrong.

A grey blue light suddenly flooded the room from the door way, illuminating the room and casting my shadow across the wall. In response to this sudden illumination I drew my rifle and pulled back the bolt.

"Wait, don't shoot!" Came a mechanical voice from the light source.

I restrained myself from pulling the trigger out of instinct. This had to be Alicia's ghost, since the Fallen would have opened fire on me as soon as the spotted me; still, I didn't lower my rifle out of caution, I've been wrong before.

"Identify yourself." I spoke up, breaking the silence.

"You weren't kidding when you said that you lacked social graces." It said with an indignant huff and flicked its light off allowing me to see who was projecting said light.

It was Alicia's ghost or some one's ghost at least. They didn't really have any distinguishing markings to identify them with.

"I brought you her rifle. Just be care full with it, she just bought this one and she's kind of protective of her stuff."

I could understand that. But what I couldn't understand was the lack of a certain rifle.

"Where's the rifle?" I asked while putting my rifle away.

"Here." Was all it said before another grey blue light projected itself from the ghost's center piece, and then piece by piece, the light began to take the shape of a sniper rifle. The process only lasted for a few seconds, starting with the stock, then the body, followed by the barrel, and then the scope. And the last half a second was spent filling in the smaller details of the rifle like the scope and accompanying knobs, the trigger and magazine, and then the color, which was a non glare violet paint job. The rifle itself was impressive even if the color choice was a little questionable, but I suppose it's fitting for the owner.

I grabbed the rifle out of the air before it could clatter to the ground and probed it up against am overturned desk nearby. I turned around and just barely caught the four mags that ghost had just finished materializing before they too could fall to the ground.

"I'll be heading back now." Was all that he said before he flicked his light back on and floated out the way he came.

 _I get the impression that he doesn't like me very much, oh well. He better get over it because he's stuck with me for the foreseeable future._

I put three of the mags down on the desk with the rifle and set about examining the last mag in my hands. It was roughly seven inches long and spring loaded with six elongated rifle bullets, each one about three inches from tip to primer. All in all I had twenty four rounds for the sniper and I still had my rifle and pistol. I set the last clip down on the desk with the others and set about the room looking for as many of the unexploded artillery shells as I could find.

After a few minutes of searching, my efforts had turned up four six shells with minimum corrosion on their shells.

 _I could definitely work with this. I could attach my two explosive charges to their own shells and throw them over the side in groups of three. First two shells without explosives and then one with an explosive. I'll wait for all three to hit the ground and then I'll hit the detonator._

 _Wait-wait –wait! I don't have the detonator, shit! The others must have the switch and I'm assuming that it only takes one push of a button to set off all the charges at once. If I wait to prime them until after the others detonate their explosives then I should be fine. I'll just let the others now when to push the detonator for my charges. That should work, or maybe not. This entire plan is going to be a trial by fire thing, I can already tell._

I removed one of the charges from my back and grabbed the first of the six shells. It resembled a small missile without the fin stabilizers on the back. Once colored a dull olive green with a polished brass tip was now rust colored brown and tarnished brass tip. Hopefully these things still blow up like they used to.

The charges had an adhesive backside for attaching it to surfaces. I peeled off the strip, exposing the adhesive side and attached it to the artillery shell. I gave a small tug to it, pleased to see that it didn't budge, and put it aside away from the other ordinance. I grabbed another shell and repeated the process over again and put it with the others. I had two groups of shells now, one group for the charges and one for shells without charges. I moved them over to the sliding wall for easier access to them when the fighting starts.

Hopefully things were going well with the others.

My com came to life once more.

"This is the Tower to Fire Team Sundown, over.

I waited for one of the others to pick up the com and answer back; they were more familiar with the Tower than I was anyways.

"This is Reagan, go ahead Tower."

"Be advised, Fallen are airlifting AA guns into the area. We can't give you air support during the assault if those are online, over.

"Copy that, AA guns are priority one targets."

"Affirmative, Tower out."

 _Well that was brief_.

"Six, can you see where they putting the AA's?"

I took another look outside and sure enough two new drop ships were lowing to the ground an odd looking piece of equipment that slightly resembled an AA gun. They dropped it off right in the middle of the staging ground.

"I've got eyes on it. They put it right in the middle of the hot zone."

"Damn, that complicates things. Alright, we'll come up with a plan and get back to you, how copy?"

"Solid copy, Six out."

With that I severed the connection and settled down near the opening in the wall as to keep an eye on the happenings outside.

 **With the others…**

 **(Lily's POV)**

"An AA gun! You've got to be kidding me!" Lily half yelled in the dim, rusted bullworks of the wall. Reagan and Jaguar had just returned from a recon analysis of the enemy staging ground when they received the transmision from the Tower about an AA threat.

We were all sitting around in what was probably a storage room at one time. Alicia was pacing back and forth in the middle of the dimly lit room while I sat in the corner upon a storage crate for something; the lable had been rendered illegible long ago at the hands of time.

"I'm afraid not. The Tower can't offer any air support for the main assualt if that gun is online by the time Zavala starts his attack." Reagan said with crossed arms and probably a frown underneath his helmet.

"And the assualt will fail and we'll suffer heavy losses during a retreat by strafing enemy fighters. That gun needs to go or this assualt will be over before it even began." Jaguar finished with a huff.

"Alright, so how do we go about doing getting rid of it?" I piped up from my spot on a crate.

"Well, its not going to be easy. From what Six told me, they're placing the AA gun right in the middle of their camp to cover as much ground." Reagon explained while moving a closed fist to prop his head upon in thought.

"We can use the charges to blow it!" Alicia exclaimed with hope of an easy fix to the kink in the plan.

"How are we going to go about getting one of the charges to the gun though. Its not like we can ask them to blow up their own weapons for us." Jaguar countered with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

Her comment gave me an idea. Without further thought I placed my hand to the built in ear piece in my helmet and hit the transmit button.

"Six, this is Lily, you copy?"

There was a brief moment of silence both on the com and in the room as everybody stopped what they were doing to observe what I was doing.

"This is Six, go ahead." His gruff voice sounded over the radio.

"Can you look outside and see if there is anything outside that the Fallen are moving towards the supply crate; generator or munitions crate maybe?"

"Give me a sec." Was his answer.

A few minutes of silence followed that answer, the only sounds in the room being the sounds of shifting armor from my fellow Guardians as we anxiously awaited his answer.

"It looks like their moving a few crates towards in the general direction of it. I cant tell what they are though." He explained.

"Thanks Six, we'll contact you again when we finish the plan, out."

"Copy that, Six out."

With that the radio went silent again.

"What was that about?" Jaguar asked, curiosity entertwined with her words.

"If we can get one of the charges onto something that there going to place withing close proximity of the AA gun than we can blow it without having to go all the way out there to do it ourselves." I explained with a bit of pride showing due to the fact that I came up with the plan on my won.

"Works for me." Reagan said. The others nodded in agreement as well.

"Okay then, Jaguar, you place the charge. Make sure that it wont be detected before we blow it. Alica, Lily, you handle the other charges. Split up and place them on key targets. Anything that can do a lot of damage or blow up real good would be preferable. I'll get on the com and fill Six in. When your done with your task regroup at the here and wait for the others. Move quickly, we have a deadline to make." Reagan ordered. While he wasn't exactly the team leader, not that we had one at the moment, he did have the most expeirence in this kind of a situation.

I grabbed my rifle from its leaning postion agaisnt the crate and pulled back on the bolt, chambering a round, and hopped off the crate with my demolitions bag still strapped to my person. I glanced at Jaguar and saw her hand one of her two charges to Alicia. I walked out of the room, closely followed by Alicia and Jaguar while Reagan stayed behind to fill Six in on the plan. We were finally going to do something productive and it felt great.

We walked out of the store room and into the rusted hallway outside. We kept walking for about five minutes until we came across desired destination, a maintence tunnel that would lead straight outside. I heard the safety's click off on our respective weapons and Alicia opened the door. The door swung open with little resistance revealing another dark tunnel. Apparently there were still a few things that time had forgotten about. Jaguar walked in first with her rifle raised and at the ready, a rail mounted flashlight flooding the tunnel with white light for about twenty feet in front of us. Alicia followed closely behind her and I brought up the rear with my shotgun in hand.

We walked the tunnel for another ten minutes before it emptied out into the open, about a hundred or so yards away from and to the left of the Fallen landing zone. As soon as we exited the tunnel, we sprinted across twenty yards of open ground for a nearby grouping of rocks. Suprisingly we didn't attract any attention from the gigantice landing force. So far, so good, right?

It was still night outside and would be for about another thirty minutes before the sun broke the horizon if the internal clock of my helmet was to be believed. It wouldn't be long until the Tower launched its assualt against the invasion force; we would need to pick up the pace if the assualt was to be a successe. With a silent glance around I saw that the others were having similar thoughts about the mission through their body language.

I poked my head out from behind a peticularly large rock to observe the landing zone. The AA gun was only just being set up now, but it would still be ready before the assualt began. Directly infront of us was an area set aside for the organization of troop placement and other such things. Commanders could be seen walking the ranks of the Fallen and conversing with eachother over data charts. That would be a could area to bomb; take out the head and send the body into dissaray. Farther into the camp was a munitions dumb. Rifles were being loaded and checked while more crates were being pulled off transports and organized accordingly. Another prime spot for a well place explosive. The munitions would make for a nice bit of fireworks and destroying their weapons before they had a chance to be turned against us was an added bonus.

Next to that was a vehicle depot; walker tanks were being formed into battalions and pikes were being outfitted for heavy combat. That was definetly a priority target. If those machines of war should be left intact during the assualt, we would suffer heavy casualties trying to take them out. They definetly needed to go.

And finally, the last thing that could possibly be worth expending out meager explosives on was a small airfield of sorts. Skiffs were settling down on the ground, their weapons being loaded and engines refueled. By the time we worked our way over there we would have hardly any charges left. We would have to radio the Tower to tell the bombers to specifically target the airfield. If we could nail the majority of the ships before they left the ground, and provided that the AA gun is offline, then we would have total air suppiority.

I pulled back from the edge of the rock to look back at Alicia and Jaguar, who were in turn looking at me expectantly.

"Looks like we have a few targets to choose from besides the AA gun. There's a personel are with quite a few officers, a munitions dumbs next to that, a vehicle debot, and then an airfield." I explained in a hushed voice.

"Okay, whats the plan?" Alicia aksed.

"Jaguar, let me see your knife." I asked.

She hesitated, but only for a second. I always found that peculair about hunters. If you ever asked them for a knife, unless you were close friends with them or it was a dire situation, most of them would flat out tell you no. I asked Alicia about it once and she explained it to me like this: Borrowing a Hunter's knife is like asking a Titan for their armor. It leaves them feeling like they're naked and vulnerable. Maybe that's how Six felt without his armor; he did behave like a Titan after all.

After the brief hesitation, Jaguar unsheathed and handed over an ornate and sharp looking knife. The blade and the guard was a shining, relfective chrome while the handle was snow white, and painted on the base of either side of the blade in white was a white jaguar in full stride with claws outstretched and fangs exposed in a snarl. This was definetly something that she must have taken pride in having, and much to her and Alicia's horror, I began to use it to draw in the dirt at our feet.

She reached out and took ahold of the hand that housed the dagger with a vice like grip.

"What the hell are you doing!" She half hissed half growled through clenched teeth under her helmet.

"Using it to draw out a map, what does it look like I'm doing?" I asked feining ignorance at the act that was considered taboo among Hunters. Using a masterpiece like itself to draw in the dirt, oh the horror! What good was a knife if you were to afraid to use it anyways.

"If I had known that was what you were going to do with it I would have given you a different one." She said while retrieveing her knife from the hand that was still imobilized in her grip. Then she let go of my hand and drew a smaller knife from its housing on her belt. This one was much simpler in design and looks; just a plain matte black, stainless steel throwing knife.

I picked up were I left off in the dirt, drawing a rough outline in the dirt that was supposed to closely resemble the massive encampment in front of us. When it was all said and done, we had a roughly accurate depiction of the camp and a fuming Jaguar. Alicia still hadn't spoken up; I think she's still in shock about the knife thing.

I stood up from my place in the dirt and offered Jaguar back her throwing knife by the handle.

"Thanking for sharing." I said in the most innocent voice I could muster, just to tick her off even more. Of course, this was all in good fun.

She took the knife back and began to clean the blade of any traces of dirt before replacing it in its sheathe at her belt.

I crouched down in the dirt again, this time gesturing for the others to do the same. They mimicked me and crouched down in the dirt.

"From what I could see, this should be an accurate depiction of their camp."

I began to point at various markins in the dirt and explain what the markings were repersenting. Circles for the officers, x's for the munitions dumb, a square for the AA gun, hash marks for the vehicle depot, and finally a small grouping of pebbles no bigger than a thumb nail for the air field.

"Okay, Jaguar, it looks like the crates that are being moved to the AA gun are mobile generators still being off loaded from skiffs in the Airfield and munitions crates coming out of the ammo dump. I recommend using one of the munitions crates for the bomb, it'll cause a bigger explosion. Your cloaking ability should allow you to make it there and back without too much difficulty, but you'll need you time it right and a safe place to hide and recharge the system; Six should be able to guide you all way there." I explained and was met with a nod of approval.

"That leaves you and me." Alicia pointed out.

"The biggest threat to the assault team is the vehicle depot. The Tower can coordinate the bomber to target the air field during the initial assault, but if those tanks get online, it won't matter. You have more charges and a cloaking ability, so you should target the depot. Look for fuel and heavy munitions; that should cause the most damage. You'll have to tag along with Jaguar all the way to the AA gun."

"Jaguar, you shouldn't have too much trouble doubling back here after you set the charge on the AA gun. Six will guide Alicia the rest of the way through the encampment to the vehicle depot." I explained to them.

Nodding heads in agreement all around.

"Alright, I'll contact Six." I said before touching my hand to the transmit button on my helmet.

 **Switch to Six's POV**

"Reagan to Six, over."

My com came to life once more with the sound of Reagan's voice filling the interior of my helmet. I put my hand to the transmit button.

"Six here, go ahead."

"We've got a plan of sorts. We're going to use one of the crates that the Fallen are moving towards the AA gun as a carrier for one of our charges." He explained.

That was obvious enough. When they asked me about any crates being moved to the AA gun it clicked almost immediately that they were going to use one to deliver an explosive payload.

"Copy that." I replied.

"Do you have everything set on your end?"

"I have Alicia's rifle and I have six unexploded artillery shells prepped for detonation. I encountered a problem though. I only have two of the six shells primed with charges and I was planning on dumping them over the wall in groups of three to cause the most damage. I don't have the detonator though which means that we'll have to work together for this to work, over."

"Solid copy. Jaguar has the detonator so you'll have to give her the go ahead on when to push the button after the main detonation sequence. They already moved to deploy the explosives so you'll have to contact them. I'm relocating to a hole in the wall a floor down from you to provide support, over."

"Understood, Six out."

I terminated the link and opened a new channel to the girls.

"This is Six, does anybody copy." I waited for a few seconds before someone picked up the com on their end.

"Six, this is Lily, listen we have a plan to deploy the explosives across the camp, but Alicia and Jaguar are going to need you to guide them through the camp to the munitions dump and the air field." She explained.

"We have the ability to temporarily cloak ourselves for a brief period of time, but the system will need time to recharge after each use. You'll need to guide us to safe places along the way so the system can recharge without interruption. How, copy?" This time it was Jaguar.

"Solid copy, send me your coordinates and give me a moment to work out a route, I'll get back to you, Six out." I terminated the link once more and grabbed Alicia's rifle which was still propped up against a desk.

I crouched down by the spacing in the wall and braced my body against the wall to reduce swaying with the rifle. I looked through the scope and was rewarded with a more up close image of the Fallen encampment. I pulled the rifle to the left and a grouping of rocks came into view, and behind those rocks stood my teammates. Okay. So I would need to plot a course through the encampment starting from the far left all the way to the munitions dump and airfield with areas where they could safely recharge their systems. No problem.

After a little over a minute I started to have a rough outline of a route that exploited breaks in patrols, blind spots in sentry positions, and the small amount of cover from stacked crates and equipment. I waited another few minutes, double checking the route for faults or irregularities in the patrols, but came up with the same result. With some coordination a fair bit of luck, we could pull this off.

"Six here, I have a route planned out, but you'll need to move quickly to avoid detection."

"Copy that, we need to get moving now. Reagan just radioed. The Tower is performing final preperations for the assualt now; says the approximate ETA is twenty minutes out." Lily spoke through the com system.

"Solid copy. I'm ready when you two are."

This was going to be cutting it close. The route I planned would take about twelve minutes to run though if they followed my directions to the letter and there weren't any problems with the Fallen.

There was a brief moment of solitary silence over the com, probably checking there gear, before they both replied over the com; "Good to go here."

Alright then.

"Okay, go immieditly to your right, all the way to the wall. From there you should be able to follow it until you come to a group of rocks and bushes, take cover in there." I explained while using the rifle scope to look ahead for anything that would through a kink in the plan. That position would put them on the edge of the permitter from the Fallen camp.

"Moving now." Was the only reply and it came from Jaguar.

I pulled the rifle back to their position in the rocks to see them darting out from them in full sprint for about twenty yards before they disapeared in a veil of shimmering waves all together. I couldn't even find a tell shimmer in the air that the Elite's active came gave off. Whatever they used it was more advanced then what the Covenant or the UNSC were able to employ.

I moved my scope back to the spott that I had indicated they should take cover in, and was rewarded with the sight of them decloaking after about a minute and a half of expectant waiting.

Ok, ten and half minutes left for the route, and eighteen and a half for the mission clock.

"We made it Six." Came Jaguars out of breath voice.

"We need a few seconds to recharge the cloaking system though." Chimed in Alicia. She, unlike Jaguar, didn't sound out of breath from the sprinting; guess there are perks to being a robot-I mean Exo. I'm not entirely sure if calling an Exo would be insulting but there's no reason to find out the hard way.

Ten seconds passed before they spoke up again.

"Okay, were good to go."

"You should see crates stacked up like a small pyramid on your right. Do you see them?" I asked. The crates in question were about fourty yards away from them, and in the middle of the Fallen camp; only a few Fallen Dregs stood in the way. Hopefully that cloaking is as effective as I think it is.

"We see them."

"Move now." I said.

They cloaked and moved out of the bushes slowly as to not make any noise before sprinting all out to the crates. The Dregs gave no indication that they detected the Guardian's presence as they sprinted past them.

They ducked behind the crates and decloaked.

"Were here, whats next?" Alicia spoke up. I could here Jaguar panting in the backround.

Maybe it was best that she had the shorter route.

"This is were you split up. Jaguar, place a charge on a crate at the from of the stack, then use the same route to get out." I explained.

She recloaked before creeping around the edge of the stack and setting a charge on the backside of the foremost crate, then took off in the direction that she had came.

"Alicia, you should see a be able to get to the vehicle depot in one go. There is another stack of crates about thirty yards from your position and right on the edge of the vehicle depot. Go there now and when you need to recharge your cloaking tech. You'll be able to handle it from here on out, right?" I asked.

"Ya, no problem." She said before the com went silent again and she cloaked herself.

Right, now all I needed to do was sit tight and wait for the inevidable clusterfuck, but before that, I had to update Reagan on our progress.

"Reagan, its Six." I spoke.

Silence, then an answer.

"Go ahead Six."

"The rest of the charges are being set now, ETA two minutes."

"Good timing, the Tower's forces are five minutes out. What's the status of the AA gun?"

I looked back at the Fallen encampment, more specificly to the crate that was rigged to blow at the push of a button being moved within ten feet of the AA gun.

"Payload delivered, ready for detonation."

"Solid copy, radio when the rest of the charges are set and your clear on your end."

"Understood, Six out." I cut the com channel and opened a new one to Lily.

"Lily, this is Six, whats the status on your explosives?"

"Set and ready to blow." Came her reply; she sounded anxious for the upcoming battle.

"Copy that, regroup with Reagan, I'll make sure the others follow shortly.

"Alright, and stafe safe up there. Having a rookie die on our watch would make us look bad." She joked as a way to lift some of her anxiety.

"Will do." I said before I terminated the link.

I looked through the scope in Lily's direction to see her stop at the ectrance to the wall before Jaguar decloaked right beside her. They exchanged a few words before entering the tunnel that would take them into the wall.

They were safe, now all that was left was Alicia, and if the fact that she was moving back along the route was any indication, she was done with the charges. Another minute later and she entered the tunnel that the others had.

"Reagan, this is Six, the charges are set and ready to blow." I spoke into the com.

"Copy that, what about the others?"

"They just entered a tunnel that'l take them back into the wall."

"Copy that."

"Tower to Sundown, detonate the charges, the assualt force is here." Zavala half yelled over the com. I guess he was ready for the fight.

"Detonating now." Came Reagans respone.

All at once, the charges detonated. The AA gun burst into pieces, killing a small group of Dregs and a few Vandals. The troop area was in chaos as the explosives set there took out many officers, leaving the rest in disarray. The muntions dump was probably one of the most effective ones. The charges that went off there went off in an intially huge explosion before igniting other crates of ammo and weapons, leading to many secondary explosions. And the vehicle depot was instantly filled with shrapnel and wrecked hulls of the Fallen war machines. The camp instantly came alive like an angry be hive.

On the horizon, I could see the dawning sun and a few dozen squadrons of fighter ship flying the City's colors.

This was it, the fight had finally began, and wether or not we would to see the next sunrise would be determined here. Hopefully, our sabatage efforts were enough to tip the scale…hopefully.

 ***Author's Notes***

 **Hello everybody who is still reading this fic. I'm really sorry about the wait for this one. I've been really busy with things like work and camping on the weekends and stuff like that. I kinda feel like this chapter isn't as good as the others and so I would really appriciate feedback on this one. Just let me know about mistakes or if the writing wasn't as good as the previous chapters. I rushed the last half of the chapter so I could post it as soon as possible so that might have been a contributor to errors. I did make this chapter longer than the others as a form of an a apology, I hope that its good enough. I don't know when I'll be able to post another chapter but I will edit and fix mistakes for this chapter if they are brought to my attention. Thanks for reading and stuff, DemonicalFox777 out.**

 ***End Author's Notes***


	8. Chapter 8

The sounds of war met the dawning sun. Orders being barked out by the officers, weapons offering a staccato of sharp repeats in exchange, bombers screaming overhead only to deposit their explosive payload.

And in all this mess was Noble Six, as calm and collected as a Spartan could be when stuck in the middle a fire fight.

The comms screamed to life, nearly deafening me with a jumbled storm of shouted commands and callouts. I switched over to the team's channel and grabbed a clip for the borrowed tool of destruction that I held in my hands. I pulled back the bolt action and slotted the magazine home with a satisfying click. The bolt was slid back into its place, the first round loaded into the chamber and ready to be discharged with lethal efficiency into the first of many hostiles targets.

The first target was a Fallen Captain with a crimson cape adorning his shoulders. I sighted the scope's crosshair over his head and let out a shallow breath, accompanied by a soft squeeze of the trigger. The gun jumped with a sharp retort and the bullet went sailing through the air only to deeply lodge itself into the helmet of the Captain, and said Captain crumpled to the ground with a new addition to his armor.

I switched over to another target, this one a Vandal with a wire rifle. Another retort, another body, a second later and another one followed in the former's footsteps. Another target, one less bullet, one more body. The cycle repeated over and over, only broken by the few seconds to change out a spent magazine for a fresh one.

Finally after a eighteen spent shell casings I was down to my last magazine. Six bullets left, chances left to make a difference. The first one round was used to terminate a rather unfortunate target proving too successful with a pair of swords. The next two bullets were spent on a Servitor attempting a repair on the AA gun. The last three were used to eliminate a trio of snipers that had claimed a tactical position overlooking the battlefield.

That was that, the bullets were spent, the magazines lie empty, and the rifle lay now useless against the wall. All that was left to do now was dump the artillery shells over the wall and push the button.

I dragged a couple of shells over to the opening in the wall and kicked them out. The fell, increasing velocity to lethal rates, then ricocheted off the slant of the lower sections of the City wall, and firmly landed amidst the enemy far below.

"Reagan, this is Six, I've dumped the first group of shells over the wall, detonate when ready."

"Solid copy, detonating." Came the response.

The ancient weapons exploded, taking the lives of at least a dozen alien lives via shrapnel and fire.

I kicked the next group of charges over the wall.

"Explosives set, detonate when ready."

The charges went off brilliantly having similar effects to the first set.

I repeated the process with the last group of charges spelling disaster for those below.

"High time I got my boots on the ground. Reagan, I'm done here, what's your position over?" I spoke into the communicator.

"Were three floors down from you providing fire support from the wall." Reagan shouted into the com, sounds of war filling in the background.

"Copy that, moving to your location, over." I terminated the link and collected the borrowed rifle from the ground.

I gave one last look over the battlefield. At this rate, we would win in a matter of hours. The explosive charges left the alien army in disarray and without any war machines. Then the City's bombers flew in and dropped their weapons of destruction onto the mass of aliens below. The Tower's ground forces were storming the site, spelling the demise of many aliens. And finally, there were at least three other Fire Teams providing over watch from the top of the wall, if the explosive bangs from above were to be believed.

Our efforts would not be in vain it would seem. We would survive this.

I turned around and headed back out the way I had come. As I descended down the interior of the wall the sounds of war reverberated off the skeleton, coming back to me as a dull reminder that time was not on my side. I sped up my slow trot to a steady run until I came to a halt on the walkway. I didn't have time to descend back down the shaft, I would have to jump down to the walkway below and hope that it would hold against my weight.

I secured my weapons to my person before placing a hand against the railing before jump up and over. I hit the catwalk below and rolled with the impact, and in retaliation to this the catwalk let out a groan loud enough to dwarf the sounds of war. I stood up and started to pump my legs into a full sprint, intent on regrouping with my team as fast as possible and to escape this death trap before it could collapse underneath my weight. I cleared the catwalk in less than a second and was across the room in two.

Now all I needed to do was find my team and get back into the fight. I un-shouldered my rifle and started up my steady run once more. Down the hallway and a few turns later brought me to a section of the wall that was in a state of major disrepair and the fighting outside certainly wasn't doing it any favors. The walls were showing signs of collapsing and in some sections had been completely been eroded by the harsh weather of the Russian wilds. Some of the support beams were rusted out and in more instances than not rented into twisted renditions of what they once were.

I found my team members located in a room, or what was left of one, a few meters down the hall. They crouched down behind a waist high wall, only jumping up to let off a killing round on some unfortunate on the battlefield. Lily and Alicia were using their rifles to great success while Reagan had set up a belt fed LMG on the wall using a bipod mount. He was firing salvos of superheated lead into large groups of Fallen, tearing them asunder and causing a general panic amongst their ranks.

I pulled back the bolt on my rifle, counted down to three in my head then sprinted into the room before coming to a sliding halt next to Reagan as fed another box of ammo into his weapon.

"Sit rep!" I yelled over the fight.

"We have them boxed into the kill zone. If we keep this up, we should be able to push them back out of the AO."

I gave a nod and sighted my rifle in on the nearest group of enemies: a group of Dregs being commanded by a Vandal. Now that I think about it, the Fallen chain of command follows the same as that of the Covenant. Instead of Grunts and Elites its Dregs and Vandals, it seems even across dimensions, alien conglomerates are all the same. They would get the same treatment as the Covenant.

One pull of the trigger sent a bullet through the gap in the between the Vandal's helmet and chest plate spraying the Dregs with arterial spray. The Dregs didn't seem fazed by this, in fact they seemed to fight harder. They had more discipline than a Grunt at least but their poor battle tactics still made them easy targets. Another three pulls of the trigger put down the threat.

Another two squads and I was forced to duck down to reload. I glanced at the others, Alicia was covering Lily while she reloaded and Reagan was firing in short, controlled burst with his LMG. We had a superior position overlooking a large portion of the battlefield and the enemy has yet to pinpoint our location through all the chaos of the battlefield. However, we would run out of ammo before the fight was over. And judging by the number of spent magazines and the pile of empty brass at Reagan's feet, we would be out soon.

I slapped in another clip and chambered a round. I glanced over the top of our improvised cover and had to immediately duck down to avoid a wire rifle. It seems that while I was laminating over the fight a team of snipers had claimed a hollow in a rock formation; they had our position zeroed.

"Snipers!" I called out.

"Position?" Reagan didn't miss a beat as he ducked down to reload his gun.

"Rock formation at my eleven!"

"Solid copy! Lily, Alicia, lay down suppressive fire!"

The two Exos nodded in sync before they both jumped up and began firing into the rocks. After a few seconds Reagan followed suit with his LMG to a devastating effect. The heavy tungsten rounds tore through the rocks and into the Vandals within. He didn't let up, swiveling the MMG around the battlefield mowing down all who would oppose. Finally, the weapon clicked empty as the end of the belt fed through the chamber and clattered to the floor.

"I'm out!" He called out.

"Last mag!" Alicia called out as she ejected a spent magazine and fed in a full one.

"Same!" Lily called out as well proceeding to load her rifle as well.

"Tower, this is Fireteam Sundown, requesting support, over."

"Fire team Sundown, this is Cayde, ex-filtrate the AO. Commander Zavala is giving a general retreat to all ground forces. The bombers are going to mop up here and we need your team at the south-east section of the wall. The Fallen are mounting up for another assault; the fight's not over yet." The comms went dead for a few seconds before Zavala's voice filled the void with orders of a full retreat.

"Pack it up, we're moving. Six give us cover on my mark." Reagan ordered.

He held up three fingers, bringing them down one by one until he closed his fist. I stood up and began firing round after round into the alien masses below as one by one my team exited the destroyed room.

Just as I was about to follow Lily out the door I caught a glimpse of a small contingent of bombers on the horizon bee lining it to the battlefield; time to leave.

I sprinted out the door and caught up to my team. They were moving slowly, cautiously through the skeletal structure of the wall. We were going to need to speed things up if we were going to make it to the new battlefield before the shooting starts. I moved in front of them, doubling their pace easily. They quickly caught on and matched my pace, which was a slight jog for them. We moved back through the halls and over the chasm with little difficulty. Once we were outside Reagan motioned for a full halt.

"We can call for a shuttle to take us to the Tower; we'll need to rearm before we jump back into the fight."

I don't like the idea of leaving the fight. Spartans were trained to head towards the sounds of dead, never away. But I can't deny the fact that we need the supplies. While Spartan's are trained to use, and repair all equipment, human or otherwise, I don't have any experience with Fallen tech.

Reagan radioed the Tower for pick up while we set up a perimeter. We didn't have to wait long before a shuttle flying the cities colors, settled down in front of us, kicking up snow and rust. The bay doors slid back to reveal what I would guess to be an engineer outfitted in light combat armor. He waved us in and we followed, first Lily and Alicia, then Reagan, and finally me. Once inside we secured our gear and took our seats on a bench situated near the back of the shuttle. The engineer closed the doors and headed to the front. A moment later the shuttle shook as we ascended from the courtyard below and headed to the Tower.

The ride was relatively short lived in silence as the overhead light bathed the bay in red light. Soon the pilot called back to us "ETA to Tower one minute, get ready for a quick drop. Another shuttle will be waiting to take you to the frontlines."

We stood from our respective seats and grabbed the overhead handle bars as the shuttle came to a standstill. The doors slid back to reveal the interior of the Tower's hanger bustling with activity as the service mechs were performing repairs on fighters coming back from the battle. We stepped off the shuttle and the engineer immediately closed the doors behind us while the shuttle turned around and departed to another section of the fight.

"Fire Team Sundown, what the hell are you doing in my hangar!" A voice called out. That voice belonged to none other than Amanda Holliday who, at the moment was looking quite stressed. She was sweating and her breathing was labored as she finished tightening down some unknown piece to a ship.

"Well?" she asked while pointing a large wrench at us almost accusingly.

"The shuttle just dropped us off here. We need to restock before we head out again." Alicia spoke up.

"Dammit Dalton, I told you to stop dropping them off in the hangar; your supposed to drop them off in the main area." Holiday said more to herself then to us.

"So how fares the fight?" She asked.

"We just secured the breach in the wall on the north side. As soon as we finish up here were to head out to the south-east section. It's under siege and they need reinforcements." Alicia said in a huff.

She took a second to let the information process and then nodded as if to confirm this to herself.

"Ammo and weapons are being set up in the main atrium for easy access. You should get a move, things to do, aliens to kill and all that."

We nodded our thanks and headed out to rearm. The main area was in a frenzy of activity. Stall vendors were packing up what they could into safe storage containers and their stalls were being commandeered by the Vanguard for weapon and ammo placement. Others were running around with various crates marked ammo or medical going to various places. Guardians stopped by seemingly at random and only long enough to get what they needed for the next fight. It served as a reminded to me of when the UNSC would prepare to repel a Covenant assault. I had to wonder how faired the war back home.

We marched over to the nearest ammo dump and started to reload spend magazines and replace lost clips. I snatched three fresh clips for my rifle and another three for the pistol, in addition to two fragmentation grenades. I was ready to go and by the looks of things so was the rest of the team.

"C'mon, transport leaves in two; we need to get moving." Reagan stated.

Transport in question was docked and destined for the frontlines. It looked something like a pelican that is if a pelican had thrusters on the wings that could rotate vertically at 180 degrees. It also had less armor in the rear but it made up for it with forward weapons and armor plating. To finish it off was a gunmetal grey paintjob featuring the Vanguard icon on the side of the nose. Now that I'm looking at it looks like a falcon and pelican hybrid. Hopefully it flies just as well.

We boarded the ship via the rear cargo bay hatch and took our seats along a foldout bench running the length of either side of the hold. The hatch sealed shut behind us, and the overhead light switched from green to red signifying that the door was closed.

"ETA to hot zone is five minutes out. The Fallen are pressing the assault but so far the Guardians are holding out. Last time I made a supply run over their Fallen was dropping in pikes so watch your asses." The pilot called out.

"What are pikes?" I questioned.

"One man recon vehicles outfitted with light anti personnel weapons and minimal armor." Lily said.

"It sounds similar to ghosts."

"And what are those."

"It's same thing from the sounds of it. Easy to get around in the right circumstances though."

"I'm dropping you off at the edge of the perimeter; you'll have to hump it from there."

The shuttle settled down with a thud before the rear bay doors opened up. Outside we could hear the tell tale sounds of war, mainly a constant staccato of weapons discharging. We grabbed our gear and hurried out of the shuttle with me on point. Wherever we were, it used to be a shopping district or something. Old storefronts that were once bustling with activity were now boarded up as a silent reminder of what it once was. One such shop however, was turned into a make shift triage. Wounded were being lugged into it from the frontlines. Those that didn't make it were set off to the side of the building with white sheets draped over them, and red splotches showing through the thin fabric.

I pulled back on the charging bolt, and shouldered the weapon; it was time to engage the enemy, and the rest of the team seemed to be of the same mind. Similar sounds of weapons being loaded emitted from them before we headed for the battlefield at a light jog. The fight seemed to be taking place on the other side of the wall, and in some places inside it. This wasn't going well for the City.

"What's the plan?" Lily spoke up.

After a second of deliberation Reagan seemingly came to d decision. "Lily, seek and destroy hostiles inside the wall; Six, back her up. Alicia and I will assist friendly's up top." And with that we went our respective ways. Reagan and Alicia broke left to an exterior service elevator while Lily and I proceeded through the ground floor. As we approached the entrance someone came running out caring a wounded service man that was bleeding profusely from a wound on his leg. The man gave us a passing glance before surging forward towards triage. As we entered the first floor, a staff sergeant was prepping himself alongside his men for close quarter's engagement; they were armed to the teeth with shotguns and sub machine guns. The sergeant himself was wearing some sort of heavy plate carrier system across his chest, and smaller similar pieces protecting his upper legs. He took notice of us when we approached.

"Guardians, what the hell are you doing here? You should be up top with the rest of them repelling the assault."

"Negative Staff Sergeant; we have orders to assist your team with hostile elements in the AO." I replied.

"Well, we could always use the backup. Hostiles have multiple entry points on the second and third floor via holes in the outer wall. We can't get an angle on where they're coming in from the outside so we're going in to clean them out; any questions?"

"How many entry points?" Lily asked.

"Unknown, but I would expect at least five if not more. Now if that's all you're on point; we'll back you up." He pumped the shotgun in hand for emphasis. The rest of his men took the hint, various sounds of weapons being loaded reverberated off the walls; they filed through a door labeled "stairs" at the far end of the room with the sergeant following after.

"Alright, two teams. Haggis and Sigma with me, designation Alpha one; Fred, Akash, and Herman, designation Alpha two."

We followed after them, and once inside two soldiers sealed the door we had just walked through. If we failed then there wouldn't be anything to stop the Fallen from getting into the City. They already breached the wall, now it came down to this moment to determine if they would get any further.

The Staff Sergeant's squad broke up into two teams: one at the top of the stairs in a stacked formation and the other at the bottom of the stairs. The Sergeant was at the back of the breach team waiting for us; apparently we were leading the breach. I got into a ready stance with my weapon lowered but ready to be brought up in a moment's notice, and prepared myself mentally for the breach. And for one moment I was back on Mamore getting ready to breach a door with three other marines.

It was May tenth when the UNSC launched a counterattack on the insurgency on the Colonial Planet Mamore. I was deployed alongside two squadrons of Sabres; we were tasked with escorting Pelican flight teams to their LZ's planetside. The insurrectionist had seized control over the local UNSC airbase, and was expected to deploy AV-14 Attack VTOLs and AC-220 Gunships.

The flight down was interesting to say the least. We lost two of the ten Pelicans and five Sabres on the way down. Shortly after the Pelicans had deployed, the local Double AA's came online and targeted our forces. We lost another three Pelicans on the way out before we docked with the UNSC _Bum Rush_. Shortly thereafter, I was deployed along with a squad of ODST's that were more or less unhappy that Brass had deemed that groundside deployment of a Spartan was necessary for mission success. We we're tasked taking out the enemy AA's so that the deployment of additional forces could go on without further obstruction.

After being deployed via the SOEIV pods, we came under fire in the streets. The rebels had anticipated us, and had occupied numerous buildings in the AO. We lost at least a third of our landing force immediately after drop to a couple of mmg nests set up in an office building. A few grenades made short work of the positions, but it didn't change the fact that we were severely out manned.

It was another hellish three blocks before we reached the compound housing the AA positions. Three whole blocks of rebels and ambushes and traps. They had rigged construction grade demolition charges in sewage drains along the street, and primed them to calibrated pressure plates hidden under pieces of debris. One misstep, one shift of the debris' weight would lead to a catastrophic and explosive end. Down another two men and with anxiety levels through the roof, we finally reached the edge of the compound.

"Stack up and prep for breach." I ordered.

At this point the ODST's didn't give a rat's ass about their petty grudges against Spartans, and just wanted the mission over with. The three remaining ODST's stacked upon the door with weapons at the ready.

"On your mark, Spartan." The corpsman said.

"On your go Guardian." This time, instead of breaching an Innie occupied UNSC Sam Sight, I was in a stairwell with soldiers I didn't recognize. It took me a few seconds and a shake of the head to orient myself back to the present. A hand sat itself upon my shoulder, the owner of which being a purple android.

"You good, Six?" She asked, her tone laced with concern.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm good." I didn't know who I was really reassuring. Either way she seemed to accept it and removed her hand from me.

"Three...two...one!" I launched an alloy encased boot into the door where the locking mechanism was located, shattering it in one go. The Sergeant frantically waved his men into the next room.

"Go go go!"

"Breaching!"

"Hostile contacts!"

Inside the room one of the men caught a round from a wire rifle in the chest, the energy round zipping through the air leaving a vapor trail in its wake. His body armor absorbed the brunt of the impact, sending him sprawling back on his ass with a grunt. The energy round ate a fist sized hole in the center of his plate carrier, replacing the area around the impact with a sizzling hole. The man in question seemed to fine as he flailed with the buckles securing the now burning plate carrier to his person.

"Haggis is hit!" The Sergeant cried as he drug him back through the doorway.

"Sigmas, lay down suppressive fire." A loaded submachine gun was blindly sprayed into the room in short controlled streams. None of the rounds found a target, but that wasn't the intent. Incoming enemy fired slowed to a near stop as the occupants inside were forced to duck and cover less they bite the bullet.

After the Sergeant finished dragging in and checking over Haggis, he turned to Alicia and Me

"Move in and secure a foothold in the room. We'll lay down covering fire from the doorway, and on your go Alpha two will back you up!"

We expressed our assent by shoulding our weapons and preparing to run into the enemy fire. Once we crossed the threshold of the doorway, the enemy resumed their ether fueled onslaught with renewed vigor.

The room wasn't much of a room, but more of a large service hall that curved slightly to the contours of the wall that stretched for thirty or so feet. Three Vandals had taken up forward positions behind rusted crates and propped up paneling. Four Dregs had posted themselves closer to the door, most likely to function as a buffer between us and the Vandals; just like the Elites and the Grunts. And finally, one lone Vandal with a Wire Rifle was crouched along the length of an overhead beam in the back of the room. He would have to be dealt with first as he was the most immediate threat to Alpha Two.

Lily fired a pump from her shotgun on the way into the room, the lead wall eviscerating the chest cavity of the nearest dreg. The others seemed to stop for a second in shock as their comrade was brutally cut down in front of them, then they abandoned their pistols in favor of their shock knives. It seemed that we had made things personal for them. Fine by me; unlike the Covenant, the Fallen officers weren't willing to fire upon their own troops, cannon fodder or no, to get a few kills. I could work with that.

The first dreg to come within melee distance took a wide swipe and my torso. I stepped back out of the ark and sent the but of my rifle into its elbow accompanied by a satisfying crack. The Dreg dropped his knife and cradled is now reversed elbow while the other Dregs went stepped forward. Lily fired a pump from her shotgun once more felling another Dreg in a spray of visceral and lead. The impact of the shot sent the lifeless body of the Dreg into his wounded comrade. The third and fourth quickly realised that engaging the humans in CQC was a mistake and abandoned the fight to fall back. The Vandals opened up as soon as the Dregs turned tail to run forcing us to take cover less we be caught by the incoming projectiles. Alpha one, who was still inside the doorway, to the initiative to return fire against the aggressive alien barrage. The hall soon broke out into a reverberating chorus of automatic ballistics fire and the high pitched whine of energy weapons discharging. Unfortunately this left us in the middle of the fire zone hunkered down behind some crates hoping that a stay round wouldn't catch us. We couldn't stand up to return fire either as the Vandals equipped with Wire Rifles were zeroed in on our position, and would take a pot shot at our peaking heads.

"Six, I have a plan, but you're going to have to trust me." Lily spoke over the cacophony of weapons.

"Whatever you're going to do do it fast; we don't have much time."

"I need you to draw their attention away from me for a few seconds."

A few shots zipped over our heads and buried themselves in the wall behind us.

"Okay, 'Alpha one provide suppressive fire on the Vandals." Their wasn't a reply except for the increase in ballistics discharges forcing the Vandals to momentarily divert their attention to the doorway.

I rolled out of cover and brought my rifle to bear. One of the Vandals in the back fired off a round with its Wire Rifle. The shot zipped past and impacted against the floor where was only a second before coming up from the roll. I in turn let loose my own shot which found its mark in the leg of the shooter followed by its short plunge to the rusted floor below.

Just after the squelching impact, a flash of violet light emanated from my immediate right. Glancing over, I noticed that the source of the light was in fact Lily. Her body was encased in dancing patterns of lilac and violets while she was doubled over. What was happening to her! Was she in danger or was this some sort of Guardian trait that everyone had neglected to inform me of. I soon found my answer when she flung a splayed hand forward at the Vandals and Dregs, and all of the light seemed to course through her body to her arm like a great dam had broken and the water was surging forwards. And the resulting action was the brightest ball of violet streaking through the air leaving a vapor trail of sort in its wake before slamming down amidst the Alien invaders. The ball of light seemed to implode before exploding in a spectacle of light whereas the Fallen seemed to be struck with some invisible force before they began to turn a shade of purple and then fade into nothingness.

Lily herself was left visibly weakened and I had to provide assistance in helping her back into cover.

"Alpha Two move in!" The Staff Sergeant called back from the doorway.

"What was that?" I asked the Exo. Her LED's seemed to dim a bit as she sat there trying to recover.

"That was a Nova Bomb." She said simply.

"And what is that."

"Look, we don't have time to explain the whole thing right now but know that every Guardian has an enate trait unique to that Guardian's class. I'll explain more when we aren't being invaded." She said rather matter of factly, almost angrily while pulling herself back up into a low crouch.

I silently cursed myself. I'm a Spartan, how could I forget that the City was under siege even for a single moment. I would need to do better in the future. Small slip ups like this end in an avalanche of momentous mistakes that could result in failure or death. This was a lesson drilled into us since day one of the Spartan III project. Either way there was still a sniper in the AO and it needed to be dealt with before we could move on.

Lily unslung her rifle while setting her shotgun aside against the crate. By this point Alpha two is swarming into the room and taking cover against the crates. The last remaining Vandal at the back of the room was overwhelmed by the incoming humans and was forced to retreat into the next area. With a heavy sigh, the Sergeant gave the all clear. Everyone gathered up in the center of the room while two men were posted at the front of the room as a forward deterrent against a counter attack.

"Haggis, you good?" The Staff Sergeant asked.

"Yeah Sarge. Bastard only got through the first few inches of body armor, nothing more."

"Good, medical wouldn't take your sorry ass even if we wrapped you up in a pretty bow." The Sergeant said with a hearty laugh.

"I love you too, Sarge." Haggis's voice was rolling in sarcasm.

I ejected the clip from my rifle and fed in a fresh one. At this rate I wouldn't have to restock before we redoployed.

"We need to move while they're still regrouping." Lily spoke up.

"The Guardian is right. Stack for another breach, frag and clear this time." The Sergeant ordered. The teams reloaded and filed over to the door, taking up similar positions like before.

"Guardians, you're on point again."

Lily and I took the point positions on either side of the door which was a simple pressure door that swung inward with a turnstile mechanism. Alpha one divided itself in half and stacked up behind myself and Lily. One of the men passed up two of his fragmentation grenades which were of a similar make to the UNSC's standard. Hold the trigger down and pull the pin with an optimal three second cook time depending on the distance to target.

After a few seconds of examination, the man behind me, Sigmas if i remember correctly, gave me a pat on the side since he couldn't quite reach my shoulder; that was the breaching signal. I pulled the pins on the grenades and then gave a nod in confirmation to Lily who then swung the door inward by a foot; plenty of room to throw a frag in. There was a commotion inside and an uproar of yelling as the deadly spheres bounced into the room. Then it was silent as Lily yanked the door closed followed shortly by a muted 'boom'. She kicked in the door and i charged in with my rifle at the ready while the rest of Alpha one surged in behind.

The grenades took out the majority of the Fallen inside and even collapsing a small section of the rusted ceiling in one area taking with it several Vandals and an unfortunate Dreg. The rest of the surviving Aliens, which consisted only of three Dregs and the Vandal from the previous room, lay scattered and disoriented no doubt from the blast. The Dregs were put down in short order while Haggis gutted the Vandal with a point blank round of shot from his scattergun in a grotesque show of revenge. The results were a newly colored Haggis and one disfigured carcass.

"All clear; holo map indicates one of the breaches just up ahead. Haggis, since your so playful why don't you take point, give the Guardians a bit of a break." Haggis ejected the spent shell which skittered across the ground before flashing a grin at us.

"Sure, why the hell not!" He seemed rather eager. Hopefully it wouldn't get in the way of rationality.

We went down the hallway in rows of two with Haggis leading the column, gun at the ready. All that we could hear were the sounds of fighting coming from the top of the wall and the other side of said wall in addition to armored boots thudding across rusted metal. Down the hall we traveled in silence until we came to a 'T' intersection upon which Haggis signaled halt with a raised fist. The Sergeant seemed to know what Haggis was waiting for and tapped his right shoulder twice upon which Haggis signaled to follow as he turned down right after he checked his corners.

At the end of the hallway was a small set of stairs leading up to a double door pressure bulkhead labeled exterior access. Two Dregs were shot in the back as we came around the corner to find them getting ready to cut the rusted welds.

"Stack up and make sure you're packing a full load. The first breach is through here and they're gonna be real excited to see us. Guardians, you're gonna have to take point again. Opposition is gonna be tough so be prepared and try to avoid any structural damage."

We nodded and braced ourselves against the door while the rest of the team got into position.

"On your mark we breach."

I looked at Lily who nodded to me and held up three fingers. I nodded in return and she started to silently count down. Upon the last finger falling, she and I launched our respective boots into the rusted metal. The door twisted and groaned under our combined might but gave in all the same. However, what was on the other side wouldn't give in so easily.

xxx

Hey everybody! Sorry for the long wait; I know it's been awhile but it's finally here. Long story short for the lack of updating was due to a bunch of life throwing shit at me and me trying to shield myself from it. Anyways, I hope you like the chapter and sorry about the abrupt ending; I felt really bad for the long wait. As an informal apology I will give you a heads up as to what the next chapter will contain: The other half of Fire Team Sundown and their situation. As always, please Read and Review, and let me know what you thought about this chapter. I'm kinda on the fence with it so let me know if you like it, hate it, or it's just kind of 'meh'. Till next time this is DemonicalFox777 signing off...


	9. Chapter 9

***A/N***

Alright guys. I'm back with another chapter, but first an apology. I'm sorry first off because I forgot about Jaguar in the last chapter. When I was close to finishing it I had a feeling that I forgot to include her in the story, and just didn't change it because I was wanting to get it posted.. She is **supposed** to be with Reagan and Alicia, but I just completely forgot to include her. So I'm really sorry about that. To make up for it here is another chapter **with** Jaguar in it.

Sorry OpticSniper2K.

 **End *A/N***

 **Reagan's POV**

The rusted, yet oiled gate to the exterior service elevator slammed down with a sense of finality. I pressed the button on the console, the lift began its slow ascent. Alicia slapped a fresh mag into her scout rifle. Jaguar had started to flip a throwing knife up in the air. Hunters were known to do that; it was something of a tick for them. Titans polish their armor, and Warlocks read and study, but Hunters play with knives.

The lift stalled about halfway up its track with a shake accompanied by the cables letting out a groan. We grabbed the side of the cart to keep ourselves standing as it listed to the side. Then as fast as the disruption had come, it was gone.

"Who the hell is using the lift!" Came a stern voice over the open comms.

I pressed a finger to my unit; "Fire Team Sunrise. We're here to reinforce the defense."

"Well get the hell off the lift. I told those fuckwits running the medical tents down there not to let anyone on it. There isn't enough power in this section of the grid and were siphoning everything we can to power the point defences. The lift takes too much power from the grid! Get off on level three and make your way up from there. Should be flares or something to follow."

"Well he seems happy." Jaguar sayed with every ounce of sarcasm she could muster -at the moment.

Alicia shrugged and then lifted the gate up. She hopped over the small gap between the elevator cart and the wall with us following suit. Together we moved through the dusty interiors and rusted corridors of the wall.

True to his word, a flare marked the correct path to take every five meters. It wasn't much longer after that till we found what we were looking. A bright red flare laid at the foot of a service ladder. A sign on the wall marked it as a service hatch to the top of the wall.

I holstered my handcannon and grabbed the first rung on the ladder. Hand over hand I went up, and when the ladder started to shake from below I knew that the team was following close behind. Just as I was about to reach the hatch, it swung open.

Some shouted something I couldn't make out before they turned their attention to the hatch. The man in question, who was another Titan, seemed taken aback at the trio of Guardians on the ladder below.

"What in the bloody hell are you doing down there! The fight for humanity is up here fuckwits!" This was definitely the guy from earlier, and I was beginning to like him less and less. He proffered a hand up.

"Well come on then!"

I grabbed his hand, and he hauled me up out of the hatch followed by Alicia and Jaguar. I glanced out over the expanse in front of the wall, and felt my body go slack with disbelief. Fallen Skiffs descended from the sky in thick droves, too many to count. They hovered for a second, their turret mounts a non stop show of ruination. Once they dropped their payload of troops and ammo, they took off to wherever they came from. The ground was blotted out with alien figures both living and dead. They were too numerous to count, and the only breaks in their ranks were armored walker tanks. The Fallen fired an endless barrage at the wall, boiling away chunks at a time. They're going to cut a boiling swath of extinction through the City if we can't hold the line here.

In retaliation to this affront, Guardians manned the wall with a fierce determination only seen in those with everything to lose. This holds true in this regard. If we fail here, the City, Earth, Humanity as a whole will forever be put on the run. This is our last bastion against the ravages of the darkness. The loss of this bastion would mean the end of Humanity. Those who could would take to the stars, perhaps even attempt to seek refuge from the Awoken or try to start anew again on a different planet. But they would be hunted down and slaughtered in time as would the Awoken. After all, it was only through their own tenacity that they survived this long. Once Humanity was out of the way, the Darkness would turn its full, undivided attention to the floating space station. No amount of tenacity would save them from that. That's why I never understood their indifference to our plight. It would be in their best interests to assist Humanity, yet they turn us away from their colony with weapons trained and cold words of banishment.

A heavy shaking brought me out of my reverie. The wall underfoot seemed to be shaking itself apart. For a few seconds I fully thought that it was caving in under the onslaught of arc, but that idea was quickly dismissed when none of the other Guardians showed any signs of the same notion. I dove into the cover of the railing when a an arc round streaked past just missing by a few precious inches. The others were already in cover by this point,

"Fucking A! The point defences are back online."

I glanced down at the housing spaces were the point defence batteries were housed. They rumbled to life, the layers of rust seemingly nothing more than a time tested camouflage. The City's point defences were 40mm autocannons that rotated on a ball joint mount.

The guns rotated for a second as if trying to decide what to prioritize first. Then, with a heavy click, the guns went live. As one, the turrets opened up, and poured thousands of rounds on the alien invaders. The skiffs were targeted first. The large caliber projectiles ripped through the light armor and toar into the insides, effectively gutting the transport.

An explosion sounded within the cockpit of the closest transports; it began to list and then completely fell from the sky. When it smashed into the ground, it took a large sum of Fallen with it. A secondary explosion lit up the crash site, furthered the collateral damage. A round of relief infused cheers sounded off across the wall.

The Fallen did not seem deterred at the loss of their air support. They continued on in their fervent path to the wall despite the shuttles falling down around them. The Walker Tanks diverted their fire towards the now active point defense system.

I pulled out my LMG and began to lay down suppressing fire on the gun crews trying to set up heavy weapon positions. The stock bucked back into my shoulder with the first squeeze of the trigger. The barrel roaring to life and spitting out hellfire. A constant flash illuminated the muzzle while the vents became superheated as gasses rushed out from within. The belt disappeared at a steady pace within the chamber of the mighty weapon only to be chopped up and discarded as spent brass and scraps. As the brass cascaded out of the weapon and fell to the floor, I swung the weapon in slow shallow arcs across the field. Some of the aliens fell to the barrage of molten lead, but most were only grazed before forcing themselves into cover.

Alicia had swapped her rifle out in favor of the pristine sniper rifle she so adored. Every few seconds of steady automatic and small arms fire was punctuated by a viscous boom from the high caliber weapon. And for every boom, another Fallen breathed his last. The weapon itself kicked back into her small frame. Yet she handled it with practiced ease. A true Hunter in her element.

Jaguar had taken a much more supportive role. She was using her Ghost to coordinate with the other Guardians and the Tower. Information had to be relayed to gun crews and strike teams across the City to continue a solid defense. No battle was ever won without communication within your army. Without it, you fall into disarray and the enemy wins.

"Guardians! Rockets up; target the tanks!" Across the wall, Guardians laid down their precious firearms in favor of the heavy armament. I had no such weapon; instead I opted for firing another stream of death at the enemy invaders.

Seemingly all at once, rockets were let loose in an admirable display of ferocity. Warheads of different shapes and sizes streaked through the air trailing vapor streams in their wake. Time seemed to halt as the weapons of destruction sent forth with their explosive payload closed in on their unfortunate targets. Guardians stood hopefully vigilant, wishing for the destruction of the enemy war machines. Fallen stopped mid charge to gaze at the rocket propelled explosives that surely spelled death for whatever it was directed at.

And in one glorious moment of triumph, the rockets connected. Two of the walker tanks were outright eliminated while a third and fourth were reduced to ruins. Another one was sent into a critical repair state after having shed a large portion of its armored plating in the blast. The point defenses roared in testament against the defiance of the machine's refusal to die. Heavy AP shells rained down upon its beaten frame spelling slaughter for those residing inside the premature coffin. And in another brilliant display of combustion, the vehicle shuddered as secondary explosions resounded inside then collapsed as it went up in flames. The point defenses, finally satisfied with the demise of the infamous creation of the Fallen, turned their aim back to the skies.

Even without the support from air and groundside siege weapons, the Fallen still swarmed over the landscape in a mad scramble for Humanity. They still had the occasional Pike intermingled within their ranks. And what was open ground before the wall was now a war torn landscape with downed vehicles and burning wrecks at different intervals; craters pockmarked the landscape here and there. All of these contributions turned what was a suicidal charge across open ground into a chaotic system of hopping from cover to cover with the occasional bouht of returned fire in the form of arc streams. The rate at which we were eliminating the alien scavengers was at a substantially lesser number.

"Get on the horn and radio for danger close on my coordinates!" The Titan from earlier was screaming at Jaguar while dumping the now spent launcher over the side of the wall. A minutes of intense firefight later, Jaguar yelled back over the din of combat.

"Danger close inbound, ETA thirty seconds! Get down!" Guardians across the wall ducked down into the minimum cover of the railing. Those who had the room to do so completely hit the deck. I followed suit and counted down in my head from thirty. At around ten seconds, I could hear the roar of engines steadily closing in. On the horizon, a squadron of fighters, bearing the mark of the Vanguard, dipped down in an attack formation.

"Heads down people! Rolling out the carpet!" One of the pilots yelled over the teamcom.

They came in at a low altitude and leveled off at a lethal speed. As they streaked by, the underside of their respective ships opened up. Pod like objects fell out at a steady pace and plummeted into the ranks below. The objects stabbed themselves into the ground in an upright position. Some of them bounced off the hulls of destroyed vehicles, skidding farther into the ranks and crushing the enemy.

"Detonation in three, two, one!" And in the same order that the pods fell, they ignited in a vibrant show of fire and shrapnel. The entirety of the field in front of the fall was alight in fire for a few brief seconds, and when the smoke cleared, only charred remains of the enemy remained. The ground was vaporized into a thin layer of glass were the bombs had detonated, and charred patterns and bodies flowered out from the impact site. When the wind picked up, it carried the foul stench of burnt corpses and acrid smoke.

"How's it looking down there?" The pilot called out.

"Looks like a fucking barbecue from where I'm standing. Thanks for the help." The Titan answered.

"Solid copy; we're RTB for fuel and ammo. Stay safe down there."

"Same goes for you." The Titan shot back.

An uproar of whoops and congratulations sounded off across the wall once more. The invaders were driven back from this section. Hopefully the rest of the defenses were going just as successfully. I looked at Jaguar, who was still manning the coms. She looked like she was in listening in on something. Her form was tense and hunched over on a crate, one hand bracing herself against it while the other was mashed to the side of her helmet. Alicia noticed this a few seconds after I did and we both approached her. We waited till she was done listening before speaking.

"So?" Alicia asked.

"Reports are coming in from across the other sectors."

"And…?" I trailed off expectantly. This was it, the moment of truth. If it was all for not would be decided right now. Everyone else seemed to notice and silently crowded around in a half circle. We were tense; the very air seemed tense.

Jaguar took off her helmet; a neutral look adorned her face. She looked at each of us, her eyes giving nothing away. Then, she broke out in a shit eating grin before bellowing out…

"We won! Reports are flooding in of Fallen in a full scale RETREAT! We drove them off! We fucking WON!" She threw her arms in the air with a cry of relief.

We stood there for a fair amount of time trying to come to terms with the sudden words, and when they finally registered the entire group broke out into cries of victory, relief, and jubilance.

"Tower to South East Wall, come in; over." The comms came to life once more.

I stepped away from the cheering group of Guardians before answering the radio hail.

"This is Fireteam Sundown; go ahead Tower."

"Fireteam Sundown, you are ordered to RTB for debrief; how copy?"

"Solid copy, Tower. RTB for debrief."

"Transport is inbound to your position, ETA two minutes out."

"Acknowledged, over and out." I severed the coms and opened one up with the other members of the team. "Lily, sitrep."

"We've sealed up the breach and the Fallen have been eliminated."

"Good copy. Transport is in bound for pickup, ETA two minutes. Regroup on my position."

"What's going on out there. It doesn't sound like a warzone anymore. Did we Win?"

"Yeah, we drove them off on all fronts."

"Alright, we'll head up top. See you in a few."

 **SIX'S POV**

I could hear the smile plastered on her face when she finished talking to Reagon. We had sealed up the breach and set up sentries on them to make sure the Fallen didn't go and reopen them. Just as we finished the sounds of heavy weapon fire coming from the top of the wall came to a standstill. I counted twenty seconds from the point of ceasefire before I picked up the sound of engines. I put two and two together and braced for the incoming airstrike. Lily and the commandos adopted similar stances. Then, another five seconds went by before the wall gave a shudder and the air grew a few degrees warmer.

I looked at Lily for confirmation.

"Incinedary carpet bombing. Must have been mostly infantry if they used fire." I gave a nod back.

Then Lily was hailed by Reagan, and she relayed the news about our recent victory.

"The has a shuttle inbound for pick up. We should regroup with the others. Sergeant, can your men hold this position?"

"We're a little low on ammo, but it'll last us if we place our shots."

Lily gave a nod before signaling me to follow her back the way we had come. We walked in near silence with nothing to fill the void except the sounds of the groaning skeleton of the wall as if all the fighting had awoken some sort of sentience. I decided to break the silence with a question.

"So, what is a Nova Bomb?" I asked.

Lily gave a sigh, either out of exhaustion or because of the timing I couldn't tell.

"Every Guardian is reborn in the Traveler's light. We are imbued with powers and strength to protect Humanity. We have the ability to jump higher and farther than others. We can generate energy at will, or bend matter around us. Every class of Guardian has the chance of having one of three abilities unique to that Guardian's class; we call them subclasses. Warlocks have: Voidwalker, Sunsinger, and Storm Caller. What you saw earlier was a culmination of all my light forged into an unstable manifestation on the physical plain."

I mulled over this new information for a bit. The whole thing seemed out of it, like it didn't belong. Then again, I suppose I'm the one who doesn't belong here; I'm supposed to be dead.

"What do the others have?"

"Hunters have Gunslinger, Bladedancer, and Nightstalker although I think the latter is rather rare. As for the Titans, you'll have to talk to another Titan about that. I only know about the Hunters from Alicia."

At this point we rounded the corner and came to a halt in front of a service ladder. I signaled for her to go first while I kept watch. Once she was up far enough, I let the magnetic locks secure my rifle to my back while I went up after her. The hatch opened and light filtered in from the outside. Lily reached the top and crawled out and offered a hand up. I enclosed my hand around hers. She hauled me out of the hatch and to my feet.

Looking around, I bore witness to the burnt killing fields. Corpses both on fire and charred beyond recognition laid strewn about the plains while molten husks of vehicles provided a break every so often. Lily gave a low whistle in appreciation of the large display of destruction.

"Hey, over here!" It was Reagan standing in the troop compartment of a shuttle. Alicia and Jaguar sat further within. We broke out into a light jog for the transport, eager to head back to the Tower.

Once inside the transport the doors slid closed, and the overhead light went from green to red. The shuttle shook as the engines flared to life. The feeling of weightlessness took over for a few seconds before settling back down.

The ride to the Tower was set in relative silence. Reagan wiped down his LMG with a rag he produced from one of the shuttle compartments. Alicia set about loading spent magazines with fresh bullets after adjusting her scope. Lily fell into a much needed slumber if the slack shoulders and slump of her helmet was any indication; she did keep a secure grip on her rifle though. Jaguar produced a wet stone from a pocket, and started to sharpen one of her various knives. I resigned myself to inspecting my new arm.

It was obviously more advanced than the robotic prosthesis we had from where I'm from. Made from some sort of lightweight plaiting with a matt black finish. It was modeled to look like an actual arm instead of just a functioning prosthetic. The fingers were rather impressive. The plates shifted over each other on a ball joint to allow full motion with them. The undersides were layered with some sort of synthetic rubber in a pattern to provide functional gripping. Overall, it was a marvel of modern engineering and something to be extremely grateful for. The only thing that I had a problem with was that I didn't know how to perform maintenance on it, and I wasn't about to take it apart and guess. I would have to inquire about it, maybe to Alicia or Lily; they more than likely know something about it being Exo's.

The shuttle lurched a bit, then shuttered, and finally the engines died down to a small hum. Reagan and Alicia holstered their weapons, Jaguar slipped her knife into a sheathe, and Lily awoke with the sudden stop of the overhead light changed from the deep red to the bright green, and Reagan hit the door release on the side. The doors slid back into their open positions and we dismounted the vehicle. The shuttle had dropped us off at the base of the Tower near the entrance. Other shuttles were steadily making their way to and fro the base of the Tower dropping off fellow Guardians.

"Why did we get dropped off here?" Jaguar asked while tipping her head to look at the top of the Tower..

"If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the top from landing pads are being reserved for wounded or something like that."

Alicia shrugged at the conundrum and walked forth to the entrance, us in tow. Inside the lobby, people ran about this way and that while people carried crates of supplies and equipment around. We walked past them and to the elevators located at the back of the room. The receptionist did stop mid phone call to gawk at me, if only for a second. We crammed into an elevator and selected the top floor. The ride was rather awkward as we stood uncomfortably close to one another while the elevator was filled with off key music from an unseen speaker system. The elevator opened up into the hangar and we pile out.

Just as Reagan had guessed, the top floor landing pads were being reserved for the medevaced wounded. Shuttles streamed in at a steady pace, and EMT's rushed to greet the newest cases. They carried stretchers between themselves, some had gauze, and others had towels and tourniquets. The deck in some places was slick with fresh blood. Soldiers stumbled out of the ship and headed for triage if they could. Others had to be assisted or even carried out of the shuttles.

We left the hangar at a brisk pace, eager to get out of the way before one of the medics gave them an earful. The Tower Atrium was little better. Instead of blood and bodies being carried around, ammunition and reports were rushed back and forth. Officers shouted out at others requesting items, reports, and updates. We walked through the chaos with the intent on heading to the Vanguard War Room.

We went down the steps and walked past the crucible handlers. The inside of the War Room was a mess. Maps were strewn about the table with a fresh layer of battlefield reports being steadily added to the layers as they came in. Zavala stood at the end of the table engaged in a heated argument with Cayde-6 over something, and Ikora Rey stood on her side of the table looking intently at something on her tablet.

We stood at the top of the steps leading down to the indention that housed the war table and the three leaders. We didn't have to stand there long before Ikora took sudden notice to our presence. She regarded us for a few seconds before tossing her tablet to the table. Cayde and Zavala took little notice and continued on in their own little world.

"You four have done commendable work, and for that...you have the City's thanks. With being said, we all know that this has only just begun." She had a hard set frown adorning her unmarked face.

I gave a nod while Jaguar spoke up for the group. "What are those two arguing about now?"

"A plan of retaliation. Zavala wants to muster forces and intelligence before launching a retaliatory strike. Cayde wants to take a team and go after them before they have a chance to regroup. Both a valid options, each with their own consequences."

"So what do you think we should do?" Alicia spoke up.

"For know, I think your team needs a bit of rest before anything further can be discussed. Rearm and rest while you can because you are sure to be leading the charge into enemy territory."

"When you say team, do you mean...?" Lily trailed off at the end with a tinge of hope.

"Yes, you four have operated excellently together and have distinguished yourselves from the rest. From henceforth, you will all be one team. Fight together, watch each other's backs, and be the best that you can." Ikora had a small smile gracing her face.

Feeling that this conversation was at an end, I gave a salute and turned to leave. The others simply turned away from the women and walked up the steps.

"Six, a word if you will." I halted in my footsteps and turned around to face the warlock. She made a gesture to join her at the table. I looked back at the others who also stood watching. I waved them on before joining Ikora at the table.

"Cayde, Zavala!" Ikora shouted over the argument. They quickly stopped and finally seemed to take notice of the six-foot tall super soldier in the room. They regarded me for a second before glancing back to each other. Cayde shrugged and tapped a few buttons on the side of the war table. The projection came to life and bathed the room in orange. Shutters slid down over the windows at the back of the room, blotting outside lotting.

"I'm sure you're wondering why we had you stick around, right?" The question was rhetorical as Cayde grabbed a tablet from the table and resumed tapping on it.

"Well...we need your input on some sensitive matters, so to speak. I don't suppose you were informed about the Awoken?"

"No sir."

"Drop that sir nonsense. I hate it when you military types do that. Anyways, the Awoken are a seclusive race of Humans out on the edge of safe space, and safe is a relative term. Long ago during the Collapse, they for the stars and got stranded all the way out there. Then they hobbled together a massive space station out of their ships, and have been living happily ever after out there. Don't get any ideas about visiting them by the way; they have a really nice kill box set up around their station. They don't much like us Guardian types, something about abandonment issues when they fled the Collapse." Cayde was about to continue his monologue when Ikora jumped in.

"To make this rather painful explanation short," she threw glare in Cayde's direction and he pretended not to notice, "the Awoken are rather reclusive and we want to improve relations with them. They have requested help with an anomaly that appeared on the edge of their long range scanners. They say it's been floating seemingly derelict. There is scoring and loss of plating in some areas on the hull, obviously it's some kind of warship. They don't dare risk their limited fighters investigating it, and have requested our assistance in this matter. Zavala, if you will."

The stoic Titan pressed some buttons from his end of the table and the display in the center of the table morphed into the object that resulted in my being here. The elongated front. The thin middle and fat aft section. The bulbous head rounding off the front. There was no mistaking it; it's the SDV Heavy Class Warship, Ardent Prayer.

From the look of it, the ship was largely intact. Some hull breaches were evident and the engines were still blown marking it dead in the water. But if the ship is intact, then that means the crew could still possibly be alive as well, provided the vacuum didn't claim them.

They knew what it was. They saw the video footage from my helmet feeds back on Reach. Yes, they knew what it was, but not what it entails.

"Do you have any insight to the situation?" Ikora was looking into my vizor, her hopeful eyes mirrored on the opaque surface.

"That...is a Covenant Warship. The very one I detonated the slipspace bomb on. From the looks of it…" I gave the hologram another look over, "it's largely intact. From my standpoint, it looks like it only bears minor hull breaches and abrasive scouring along the aft and mid sections were the Savannah targeted her engines and deployment bays."

Cayde braced his hands on the table top and leaned in to study the hologram closer, as if the picture would answer all his unspoken questions. "If there are only minor hull breaches...then could the crew still be alive?"

"...It's a possibility."

"Then what should be do?"

The question hung in the air creating an almost tangible silence.

"Nuke it." They looked at me, and then back to the hologram.

"Yeah...no. We can't do that. One: we don't have any nukes. Most of them were lost during the collapse and the others decayed overtime. And two: there could be a potential ally in there. They could help us turn back the tide, or at the very least we could use their tech."

"The Covenant want nothing more than to burn all traces of Humanity from existence. Once they get that ship operational again, they will come for the City. First they'll send in the air support and target key facilities. Then, infantry mop up what the fighters missed. They will kill indiscriminately. Every man, woman, and child is a target to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. When the infantry has had its fun, they'll bug out and the ship will fire its excavation beam. It will render the targeted site to molten glass and radiation. They are not to be confused with allies. The only option is a preemptive strike against them!" My hands were balled into shaking fists fueled by hatred. The thought that another war with the Covenant could break out with the City is absolutely unthinkable. This would not come to pass no matter what.

It was the duty of Spartans to defend Humanity against all threats. Even if this isn't the Humanity from where I'm from, these are still innocent people who will be slaughtered if the Covenant find them. I would stop that ship from ever becoming operational...even if I have to go and do myself.

"You believe this to be true?" Zavala was regarding me with a cautious gaze. It was his job to protect the City and its inhabitants. He would see reason, he had too.

"Yes sir!"

"Then your team will board that ship. Like Cayde said, our nukes are long gone. That means you have to blow it from within. I'm assuming I'm correct in thinking a ship that size has a reactor of some sort?" I gave a nod, satisfied that this was going in the desired direction. "Good. Your team will be outfitted with whatever you need. You'll have full autonomy on this one. You know what you're up against, don't take any unnecessary risks. Get in, plant the charges, and get out. You leave tomorrow."

I opened my mouth to voice my protests but he beat me to it, "We still have to get the wounded sorted in the hangar and Holliday has her hands full with repairs. You still need a ship of your own before you roll out so be patient and brief your team. You might be ready to keep fighting, but they aren't. You ought to know that a tired soldier is a dead soldier. Dismissed." His tone and accompanying scowl left little room for argument.

I gave a salute and left up the stairs. The others were waiting up at the top of the stairs. They gave me questioning glances.

"We have a new mission tomorrow."

"So soon. We just defended the City from an all out siege." Jaguar huffed.

"They gave me command over the operation. We leave tomorrow." I walked off to the hangar. I was still angry from the reminder of what the Covenant was capable of. I needed something to do, something productive. I knew an extensive amount of first aid, all spartans did. The UNSC couldn't have their precious savior's dying in the field because they didn't know how to patch themselves up. The medical staff in the Hanger could probably use a hand in treating the influx of wounded.

Inside the cavernous section of the Tower, it was still as chaotic as it was before if not more so. Shuttles arrived in droves bearing wounded and dead from the outlying walls. One of the staff addressed me; it was the woman from earlier, the one that guided me out of the medical ward.

"Either lend a hand or get the hell out of the way!" she was huffing and red in the face. The white nurse's scrubs she wore were doused in blood as were the latex gloves covering her delicately small hands. She obviously was trying to keep a level head, but was failing. She looked like she wanted to find a corner and break down.

"Where do you need me?" I asked while casting another look over the hangar. They had a small triage center set up in an office on the second level for those waiting for the elevator to the medical ward.

"You know first aid?" She seemed taken aback at the offer.

"Yes mam. Where do you need me?" I repeated.

"Over in triage. The docs need someone with a steady set of hands."

I gave a nod before taking the stairs up to the second level. There were cots laid out for the men and women who couldn't stand on their own. Most of those brought in couldn't which led to a rather large amount of cots filled with warm bodies. Several Doctors ran in between the cots with clip boards and pressure bandages. One of them turned to me.

"Guardian, give us a hand here will ya?" I nodded.

The first patient to have my attention was a combat marine in burnt IBA padding. He was sporting a large fourth degree burn just above his knee on his right leg. He mumbled something incoherent.

"Mmmh...eehh...goddamm Fallen with your...hnnn...grenades."

I applied a thick helping of severe burn cream to the wound and rolled it up in bandages. The next was a woman who had suffered a concussive blow to the head. She showed signs of PTSD as well. She laid comatose the cot and remained unresponsive as I applied stitches to the shallow cut just below her hairline. On I went. I lost track of the time, and the faces of those I treated. One after the other, the shuttles came in dropping off dozens at a time. I all but threw myself into my work. When one patient was stabilized, another took their place. Always another in line waiting desperately for treatment.

Eventually, when the sun had long since spread the last of its rays, the other members of my fireteam found me in the Hangar. I was just finishing up with a soldier who caught some shrapnel in his midsection when they approached me.

"Six, what are you still doing here? You should be resting." Lily spoke first.

"These people need my help. The medical staff…" "Can take it here." Jaguar interrupted. "You need to rest up for the mission tomorrow." Reagan gave a solid nod in approval as he glanced about the triage. "You did good work here. Now let medical take over from here. You won't be doing them any favors by ending up in here yourself because you got sloppy on the job." They were talking sense and I knew it. I just didn't want it to make sense.

With a sigh, I set down the pressure bandage I had in hand. They took the action as my acclimation to get some rest. They left for the elevator with me following suit. However, I was stopped at the threshold of the elevator. "Guardian!"

The nurse from earlier jogged over to me with a smile breaking across her face. It didn't look entirely right amongst all the sweat and dried blood adorning her face, yet at the same time it was a welcome sight.

"I wanted to let you know that what you did here, helping these people, has been a huge help to all of us. We never would have been able to help as many as we did today without your help. My name is Grace, and if you ever need something just ask. I think I speak for everyone when I say we owe you. Thank you." She was called back over to one of her patients. She offered a small smile of gratitude and then left. I looked at the other faces around the room. Sure enough, small smiles graced the faces of those who could when they turned in my direction. It felt...nice to be appreciated. With the UNSC, it was always just a few words of thanks, then off to the next front. I turned and went into the elevator.

The doors opened to an empty hallway. The display next to the doors marked this as the barracks for the Guardians. The others advanced forward down the hall. Reagan took a branching hallway with a mumbled "goodnight". Alicia unlocked a door farther down the hallway and entered the room with Lily in tow. Jaguar turned to me.

"This way. While you were patching up the wounded, we talked to the administrators and secured you a room on the same level as ours. It's this way." She waved me to follow as she walked farther down the hall. She handed me a key when we stopped in front of a door labeled thirty one in brass lettering.

"This is it. Try and get some rest. I'd hate it if I had to drive your heavy ass out of the fight if you fell asleep in a fight." She gave a hollow chuckle as she walked back down the hall. I opened the door to the room.

Inside, it was rather small. An unfurnished room greeted me with a tiny kitchenette in the back. Two three doors branched off from the room. One led to a small bedroom, the other a closet, and finally the third held the bathroom. I inspected the bedroom finding nothing more than a dresser and a bed inside. A full body mirror hung on the wall.

I removed pieces of my armor before climbing into the bed. The mattress was a little stiff from disuse but that would change overtime. Once my head touched the pillow, the day's events finally caught up to me, and in full force. What energy I thought I had was immediately siphoned out into the pillow as exhaustion forced my eyelids to slip shut.

 _AN_

 _Hey guys, I decided to work a little faster on this one. Hopefully the quality hasn't diminished any. Anyways, hope you like and remember to post a review or something. I always like hearing from you guys. Makes me think that people like it enough to talk about it. As always, let me know if you spot any problems and I will be sure to fix them. Flame if you want, but try and keep it constructive. Demonicalfox777 out…_

 _END AN_


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